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Maine publisher BookLocker.com has filed an antitrust class action lawsuit against Amazon.com.

According to their blog about the antitrust case, a complaint was filed in Bangor, Maine, on 19 May. Publisher Angela Hoy’s synopsis of their decision to file the complaint references what they consider a clandestine effort on the part of Amazon.com to unlawfully force all publishers to use their proprietary print-on-demand technology, using their own market share to advance their printing subsidiary. The complaint alleges that Amazon is demanding an “anticompetitive tying arrangement that violates section 1 of the Sherman Act” and requests a trial by jury.

Hoy’s entry also mentions that one option facing Print on Demand publishers included paying a premium to be part of Amazon’s “Advantage Program:”

However, they did not divulge in the 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.

Hoy’s suit, which is currently seeking class-action status, “seeks an injunction preventing Amazon from implementing the new policy, as well as monetary damages and legal fees. There are about 4,300 potential print-on-demand class members,” according to Hoy’s attorney, Seth Klein.

Writer’s Weekly has set up a page tracking the progress of the Amazon complaint as well. According to the Writer’s Weekly page, Amazon/BookSurge had been telling other POD folks verbally (never in writing, a sign that potentially something rots somewhere in the north of Europe) that their options were BookSurge or no sale through Amazon.

This promises to be interesting, because Amazon, by virtue of being a publicly held corporation, has one goal: to make money for shareholders. Some of the discussion I’ve encountered reading about the Amazon/BookSurge controversy has almost taken a tone of horror, as if Amazon should be more altruistic, as if they were a library of some sort.

But that’s individuals, not companies being squeezed by Amazon’s decision as pertains to POD publishing. Positioning themselves in this manner to demand use of their own subsidiary to sell books through their marketplace is a curious move, and I really wonder whether it will hold up or if the injunction and potential class action suit will force them to alter their policy. There are other options, and other online booksellers, but few with the buying or selling power of Amazon, which works for them, or against them in this case.

24 comments •
Categories: News • The Link-O-Lator
Tags: amazon, booksurge, legal eagles

Courtney Milan is working on a presentation for the Beau Monde conference, which happens Wednesday 30 July, conveniently out in SF. It’s a mini-con, she says, and her workshop is all about wills, and what they can and cannot do. For example, she says, “they can’t condition the money given on marrying a particular person.  Or a slew of other things, ranging from “no violating the Rule Against Perpetuities” (please don’t make me explain that one--it basically means, don’t give stuff to people who aren’t, and might not be, born, but it’s more complicated than that in ways that take ages to explain) to “you have to let people do *something* with your stuff, eventually.”

Problem is, Ms. Milan needs books what deal with wills as a plot device.

One of the things I want to end with is a dissection of Actual Wills in Actual Historical Romances.  I know I have read this particular trope about ten zillion times, but when push comes to shove, I never remember names and I cannot remember a single book in which it actually comes into play.  Worst of all, my vast stores of historical novel are all packed in boxes and in another state, due to an impending move.  If possible, I would like to impose on the Bitchery for the following.

There may be a large number of answers here, rather than just one book, but here is what I am looking for:

1.  Must be set in England before 1873.  And no, Scotland doesn’t count--Scotland had separate courts of equity and different rules applied.
2.  The heroine must marry the hero because a will specifies that the two must marry.  It doesn’t matter whose will, or who will lose the money (either the hero or the heroine).  The important thing is that the will must say, “You, Jane Heroine, will receive 10,000 pounds, but only if you marry John Hero.”
3.  Ideally, the relevant language of the will should be in the text of the book, but this is not necessary.

So, anyone got any ideas to make this presentation super-duper funky punchy? And if we get really, really good answers in this thread, can we sit in? I promise not to heckle!!

51 comments •
Categories: Help a Bitch Out
Tags: england, historical romance, history, legal eagles