LISNews: Librarian News

Author faces six figure legal bill after unfavourable Amazon reviews case is struck out
An author who tried to sue a father of three from the West Midlands over comments made in a series of unfavourable reviews on Amazon is facing a six figure legal bill after a judge struck out his case.

The judge ruled that although a small portion of Mr Jones’ words might be deemed libellous by a jury if it went to a full trial, there was little point pursuing that avenue because the potential damages would be slight compared to court costs and time.

What Did Amazon Ever Do For Us?

We don't aim to list the errors or poor presentation issues we saw but clearly there is a huge gap the approach to selling and the perception of what the consumer may want to know. Amazon were the only ones to list all the renditions (ebook,hardback etc) on the same page and link to these individual options. They were the only ones to give us a sample of the book and even a promotional video. They, as you would expect won on price, but also clearly stated the RRP, saving and sale price. There was even disparity between the various offers as to what the ebook RRP actually is, which in the eyes of a consumer may be very confusing. Within seconds we had it downloaded our copy.

If you think independent bookstores hated and feared Amazon yesterday you might want to check with them today. Amazon has just purchased a robot army. See this news story for details.

Larry Kirshbaum was the ultimate book industry insider—until Amazon called... Amazon's Hit Man

And now this. Amazon could be an unstoppable competitor to big publishing houses. If history is any guide, Bezos, who declined to comment for this story, doesn’t care whether he loses money on books for the larger cause of stocking the Kindle with exclusive content unavailable in Barnes & Noble’s Nook or Apple’s iBookstores. He’s also got almost infinitely deep pockets for spending on advances to top authors. Even more awkwardly for publishers, Amazon is their largest retailer, so they are now in the position of having to compete against an important business partner. On the West Coast people cheerfully call this kind of arrangement coopetition. On the East Coast it’s usually referred to as getting stabbed in the back.