The INQUIRER: The idea is to make you laugh as well as cry
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Authors claim Amazon's Kindle lending library breaches contracts
US AUTHORS are claiming that Amazon has breached its contracts with publishers in its recently released Kindle lending library, which could lead to the service being pulled if the matter goes to court.
The lending library, which is 5,000 titles strong, is a popular new feature for Kindle ebook readers, letting customers who own an Amazon Prime subscription 'borrow' an additional book a month for free. Since there are no due dates for 'returning' these books, however, it effectively amounts to 12 free ebooks a year.
Amazon claims it is doing everything by the book, with most ebooks being given out after agreements with publishers to include the books in its catalogue for a fixed fee. In other cases Amazon said it is purchasing the books at standard wholesale terms every time they are borrowed, which should mean no loss of income to authors or publishers.
Many authors disagree, however, and are furious with Amazon's alleged disregard of its agreements with publishers. The Authors Guild claims that the six biggest trade publishers in the US - Random House, Simon & Schuster, Penguin, HarperCollins, Hachette and Macmillan - refused to sign up with the library and yet Amazon added their books anyway.
Literary agents are reported as saying, "It is difficult to see how this programme is in the best interests of our clients," according to The Guardian.
Even publishers that have signed up with the library might be in breach of contracts, as they are supposed to secure permission from the individual authors concerned, but many authors say that they were never contacted.
The Kindle Fire tablet, Amazon's rival to Apple's Ipad, is only out one day in the US, which means the timing of this backlash could have a big impact on sales, particularly if Amazon is forced to close the lending library or increase Amazon Prime subscription fees to make up for any potential royalty deals it eventually makes with the publishers.
The Kindle lending library is not yet available in the UK, which probably delights UK publishers and authors. The anger expressed over the situation in the US could lead to delays or cancellation of any planned rollout of the service in other regions. µ
Tags: Software
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"The Authors Guild claims that the six biggest trade publishers in the US - Random House, Simon & Schuster, Penguin, HarperCollins, Hachette and Macmillan - refused to sign up with the library and yet Amazon added their books anyway".
Yes, that is how monopolists behave. They do it because they can - and, incidentally, company law obliges them to maximize profit in all legal (or at least, not obviously and outrageously illegal) ways.
It really is a shame that the world turns out to be so constructed that all attempts to implement the lovely theoretical free-market capitalism of the textbooks ends up with monopolies or near-monopolies. We have Microsoft in computers, Apple in consumer gadgets, and in the UK a whole string of effective monopolies from your unfriendly local bus and rail companies to Virgin for cable and Sky for satellite.