NYTimes.com Article: Amazon Offer Worries Authors

[Ann Okerson <ann.okerson@yale.edu>]

Of possible interest.

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Amazon Offer Worries Authors

October 27, 2003
 By DAVID K. KIRKPATRICK 

The online retailer Amazon.com has introduced a feature that lets users
search for specific words or phrases in a database of the texts of 120,000
books, drawing skepticism from an authors' group.

The feature, called Search Inside the Book, lets anyone see a few pages of
each book in which the phrase appears. Registered users can see up to 20
pages of a book at a time.

In a letter on its Web site, Amazon's founder, Jeffrey P. Bezos, said the
feature was added to benefit customers. Amazon plans to add more books to
the database.

Plans for it were first reported in July. Publishers have said that Amazon
promoted it as a better way to sell books, by letting shoppers sample them
- as they might in a bookstore. Some book publishers have said that by
offering a source of information about a variety of topics, the feature
may also help Amazon more than the publishers, because it will attract
shoppers to other merchandise like music, electronics or apparel, as well
as books.

Amazon said that 190 publishers were taking part, but some publishing
executives said they were still watching to be sure that the new service
did not hurt book sales by giving away contents.

Paul Aiken, executive director of the Authors Guild, a writers' trade
group, regarded the practice as dubious. He said that publishers did not
have the right to make the contents of books available without the
authors' permission. "We find it a matter of serious concern," Mr. Aiken
said.

He said Authors Guild staff members had managed to view and print as many
as 100 consecutive pages of several books by searching repeatedly for
different terms. He also noted that recipes from some cookbooks and
details from travel books were also available, meaning that users could
print recipes or destination descriptions without buying the books. "You
don't even have to wait for Amazon to deliver," Mr. Aiken said.

When the Authors Guild raised its concerns with publishers over the
summer, Mr. Aiken said, some offered to remove the book from the
searchable database if the author requested it.

A spokesman for Amazon said the company left decisions of what was
available up to the publishers.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/27/business/media/27amazon.html?ex=1068257565&ei=1&en=2bd0f7e5b27347d9

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Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

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