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For more information on this topic:
Amazon’s public statement about its new position. (March 31, 2008)
Angela Hoy/BookLocker Files Class Action Lawsuit Against Amazon.com (May 19,
2008). "Amazon has
offered only one alternative to publishers—its 'Advantage
Program,' says Hoy. "However, they did not divulge in their public statement that the terms
of the Advantage Program are even worse than their printing contract. The
Advantage Program requires POD publishers to give Amazon 55% of the list
price, pay them $29.95/year, and pay the shipping costs for books going to
Amazon."
Angela Hoy’s initial comments on her Writers Weekly website. (Her company,
BookLocker.com Inc. has 1200 books in print—both hers and her authors.)
Copyright © 2000-2010
by Barbara Brabec
All Rights Reserved
Barbara Brabec's World
BarbaraBrabec.com
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FLASH! Amazon Loses Booklocker Lawsuit
Below is the original article on this topic, for reference. But the good news is that Amazon backed down and settled the antitrust lawsuit filed by BookLocker.
You can
read Booklocker's post about this here, and also read the
news of this settlement on Publishers Weekly dated 1/20/2010.
Basically,
Amazon agreed to NOT remove Booklocker books from its Web site or to remove the
"Add to Shopping Cart" button. (Amazon, which admitted to no wrongdoing, also
agreed to pay $300,000 in attorney’s fees.) Congratulations to Booklocker for
this very important "win for the little guy!"
Amazon's BookSurge service mentioned below has now been "retired," and
their POD services are now being offered through CreateSpace.
ORIGINAL ARTICLE:
Amazon Throws its Weight Around,
Book Publishers Push Back
SPAN rallies independent publishers
to support lawsuit against business giant.
Colorado Springs, CO, July 7, 2008 — The Small Publishers Association of North
America (SPAN), a national trade association dedicated to advancing the
interests of independent publishers, launched a campaign to generate support for
the class action lawsuit Booklocker.com, Inc. vs. Amazon.com, Inc. The SPAN
board recently voted to publicly support the lawsuit.
BookLocker.com, Inc., initiated the class action antitrust lawsuit to challenge
the legality of Amazon’s new policy requiring print on demand (POD) publishers
using the company’s distribution services to print their books using Amazon’s
subsidiary BookSurge. The lawsuit states that Amazon is illegally tying the
BookSurge printing to Amazon’s distribution services. According to antitrust
law, companies generally cannot require a customer to buy one product in order
to have access to another distinct product.
Through its campaign, SPAN aims to generate significant public pressure to
compel Amazon to reverse its new policy. The campaign is built on two
objectives:
 To collect 10,000 signatures on a petition that will be sent to Jeff Bezos, CEO
of Amazon;
To unite 100+ writer and publisher organizations in opposing the policy and
supporting the lawsuit .
“From the public outcry over the announcement of Amazon’s new POD policy, we
have an army of enthusiastic writers and publishers ready for the next step in
getting Amazon to change its policy,” said SPAN Executive Director, Scott Flora.
“This campaign is the next step.”
SPAN’s campaign is creating support in five primary ways: uniting voices through
the petition; writing letters to Amazon; recruiting other organizations;
generating press coverage; and passing the word along friends and colleagues.
___________
SPAN is a nonprofit trade association of independent book
publishers with more than 1,000 members. The association provides support to
authors and independent book publishers through industry news, business
benefits, education, and marketing opportunities.
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