Just switch the epubs or learn English and import books.
French wankers information wants to be free.
France moves to shield its book industry from Amazon
41–50 of 301 posts
Re: France moves to shield its book industry from Amazon
#42Why not? Didn't China move to shield pretty much every industry from overseas ones?
Re: France moves to shield its book industry from Amazon
#43My experience tells me that the practical outcome of this new regulation is that shipping will become more expensive for books. It will not prevent customers to stop shopping online, so no effect for legacy bookstore.s Like most goverment proposed solutions: This will actually create a new problem not fix the origintal intented cause.
Maybe that is not a problem, and will force people to actually get to meet with people
Dematerialized everything has its problems too
But why bother with the social aspect of things, we are all enslaved consumerist robots anyways..
Re: France moves to shield its book industry from Amazon
#44Oh wow, Amazon is such a threat! Whatever will Larousse and Hachette do... maybe remain competitive? </3
There certainly has been a fair bit of consolidation in the publishing industry, other than Amazon becoming the dominant retailer.
Consolidation is traditionally viewed as anticompetitive, believe it or not.
Re: France moves to shield its book industry from Amazon
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I hate Amazon as much as anyone The fashionable thing to say, indeed! Yet the anyones are all covertly buying from Amazon, working for Amazon, and investing in Amazon.
Nah, we've successfully reduced spending on Amazon by >90% in our household. There are still some obscure items that, due to the sheer spread of Amazon, are incredibly difficult to get anywhere else, online or off - but that was Amazon's original market benefit to begin with. You could always get that weird book on Amazon that you couldn't get in the book store.
@Saddlerustle, that’s a very legit 5-star Amazon review if I’ve ever read one!
Re: France moves to shield its book industry from Amazon
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
People living in the cities will now be able to buy a book significantly cheaper than someone living in a rural area. And a bookstore in a city will be able to outcompete a rural one, since they'll have more local sales but the rural bookstore will not be able compete on price for the mail orders.
Seems like a harsh but fair move on France's part to stop unfairly subsidizing rural areas. Honestly living in rural areas should cost more - maintenance of infrastructure, power, etc are significantly more costly for rural areas in a way that's not nearly accounted for by their tax base.
If you don't have incentives for rural living you 1) depopulate your food production labor base and 2) don't have people in a place that will defend it with force.
Re: France moves to shield its book industry from Amazon
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I hate Amazon as much as anyone The fashionable thing to say, indeed! Yet the anyones are all covertly buying from Amazon, working for Amazon, and investing in Amazon.
Nah, we've successfully reduced spending on Amazon by >90% in our household. There are still some obscure items that, due to the sheer spread of Amazon, are incredibly difficult to get anywhere else, online or off - but that was Amazon's original market benefit to begin with. You could always get that weird book on Amazon that you couldn't get in the book store.
Resistance is futile.
Re: France moves to shield its book industry from Amazon
#48Not a big fan of Amazon but I also find it ridiculous and self-sacking to fixate on obsolete ideas. If you have to force a business to exist, maybe it doesn’t need to exist.
I don't think books are obsolete, many people still enjoying reading them, and buying them. Also, there are plenty of government subsidized programs that are popular with people. No economic model can perfectly match our sensibilities. We as a society protect things that we think need protection. It's really as simple as that.
Re: France moves to shield its book industry from Amazon
#49Is there a word for laws that disproportionately affect people in rural areas so that a government can play protectionist for urban companies? I hate Amazon as much as anyone, but in this case they're definitely not wrong , even if they're probably lying about their reasoning.
> I hate Amazon as much as anyone The fashionable thing to say, indeed! Yet the anyones are all covertly buying from Amazon, working for Amazon, and investing in Amazon.
Is this somehow supposed to be inconsistent? One normally doesn't hate Amazon because they are successful, but because they are too successful. This is like claiming making fun of someone who says they hate cigarettes or alcohol because they are "covertly" still using both all the time, or someone who says they hate the food at their school cafeteria despite "covertly" eating it... this "you don't get to say you hate something if you use it" take is ridiculous.
Re: France moves to shield its book industry from Amazon
#50France has a long history of attempting to protect its cultural industries, including film and publishing.
It's not wrong. There are other things that are important aside from customer purchasing power.
Amazon is using its economies of scale to drive out smaller businesses. It is not unique in that. But the industries that Amazon affects may be unique to the nations that wish to preserve them.
Most centralization incrementally kills local industry, including the local culture industry. TV, railroads, chain stores, Wal-mart, you name it -- they are all killing something local.