Amazon and the Publishers
While walking in to work this week, I listened to “This Week in Tech”, and rather than bang on about the various net neutrality issues that will likely kill the free internet in the US, they got sidetracked talking about Amazon, and the problems some publishers are facing selling their books through the site.
If you've heard nothing about this, basically some publishers that have not agreed suitable terms with Amazon to sell their books are complaining that their books are not being made available as freely as they would like. This is apparently “unfair”.
Here's the thing. Amazon is not a public serviceit is a business. The closest brick and mortar business we can liken it to is a supermarket. If you are a supplier of a good, and you want to sell it in a supermarket, you have to do a deal with the supermarketon their termsand then they put the goods you have agreed on the shelves for the public to buy.
Amazon isnot a library service. Just because a book is available, doesn't mean Amazon has to stock it, andsell it to youin the same way that just because you like a particular beer,you cannot demand that your local supermarket (or pub, or off license) sell it.
What we are not hearing is the terms of the contracts the publishers signed with Amazon, that has resulted in their books not being made available as readily as they might likewe are only hearing from the publishers that their books are not being made available in the store.