I'm curious whether French independent bookstores have been harmed much by Amazon. In the US, Amazon has probably actually been a boon — the number of independent bookstores has grown dramatically over the last decade, in part because Amazon squashed the previous era's giant book retailers like Borders and Barnes and Noble, who had been crushing independent bookstores.
France moves to shield its book industry from Amazon
51–60 of 301 posts
Re: France moves to shield its book industry from Amazon
#52Oh wow, Amazon is such a threat! Whatever will Larousse and Hachette do... maybe remain competitive? </3
Yeah -- just make no profit for two decades until everyone with shallower pockets bled out, stupid.
It's called competitiveness, baby, and it's easy peasy lemon squeezy!
Re: France moves to shield its book industry from Amazon
#53Oh wow, Amazon is such a threat! Whatever will Larousse and Hachette do... maybe remain competitive? </3
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Re: France moves to shield its book industry from Amazon
#54Not 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.
It’s forced obsoleting. Forced existence is the pushback. There are better methods though I agree. When we finally bring more manufacturing back to the US I think that’ll be a natural way to put a damper on Amazon’s harm to our country
Re: France moves to shield its book industry from Amazon
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
Oh, this was my mistake. It's not a paywall, it's just asking me to register to continue to read for free. Says something about my advertising blindness. (I'm in the US, visiting from a US IP address.)
Perhaps we need a new term for this, encompassing both paywalls and "registration walls". "Dating wall" perhaps? Whether it's asking you to pay up, or just to register an account, it's still asking you to enter into a relationship with the content provider, and you bounce off because you'd rather not have that relationship. Relationships are a burden, there's only so many one can keep track of.
I just call them, "Nope."
I'd really like a plugin that will override styles on links to sites on a list I get to keep.
Re: France moves to shield its book industry from Amazon
#56Oh wow, Amazon is such a threat! Whatever will Larousse and Hachette do... maybe remain competitive? </3
I'd rather not have them race to the bottom to "remain competitive".
I also rather not have the book industry of a country dependent on the whims (and VC/bottomless pit of money to stay "competitive" while they crush a market) of an American company. Even more so one with no culture and no respect for the book as a work of the spirit whatsoever.
So there's that.
Re: France moves to shield its book industry from Amazon
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
And it's usually the end result of competition with behemoths like Amazon, believe it or not.
Re: France moves to shield its book industry from Amazon
#58Earlier 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.
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…
Didn’t you hear? Losing your US-manufacturing job so everyone can buy cheap throwaway Chinese goods with loads of fake reviews is actually good for the economy, or something. You should be made fun of for thinking otherwise.
Re: France moves to shield its book industry from Amazon
#59And laissez-faire was a French invention.
It was one of those inventions you gift to inferior cultures...
Re: France moves to shield its book industry from Amazon
#60This is stupid. It will prevent local business from using "free" shipping. Better way will be to just ban Amazon until they start paying right taxes.
If they’re not paying the right taxes, why not just prosecute them for violating tax laws?