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Reading Between the Lines of Used Book Sales
by bucy at 2:04 pm EDT, Jul 28, 2005 |
While Amazon is best known for selling new products, an estimated 23 percent of its sales are from used goods, many of them secondhand books. Used bookstores have been around for centuries, but the Internet has allowed such markets to become larger and more efficient. And that has upset a number of publishers and authors. In 2002, the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers sent an open letter to Jeff Bezos, the chief executive of Amazon.com, which has a market for used books in addition to selling new copies. "If your aggressive promotion of used book sales becomes popular among Amazon's customers," the letter said, "this service will cut significantly into sales of new titles, directly harming authors and publishers."
The RIAA/MPAA mess we're in right now is going to be nothing in 10 years when you can buy a plastic printer for under $1000 and bootleg GI Joe figures at home. |
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RE: Reading Between the Lines of Used Book Sales
by dmv at 5:02 pm EDT, Jul 28, 2005 |
In 2002, the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers sent an open letter to Jeff Bezos, the chief executive of Amazon.com, which has a market for used books in addition to selling new copies. "If your aggressive promotion of used book sales becomes popular among Amazon's customers," the letter said, "this service will cut significantly into sales of new titles, directly harming authors and publishers."
"If your aggressive promotion of used book loans becomes popular among library users," the letter could have said, "this service will cut significantly into sales of new titles, directly harming authors and publishers." I was going to ask when did it become OK for one business to harrass another business over the damage they might inflict onto Their Business Model. But this is a story as old as time. |
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