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.

RE: Reading Between the Lines of Used Book Sales