In an extraordinary statement published on Amazon’s site, the retailer says that it “will have to capitulate and accept Macmillan’s terms because Macmillan has a monopoly over their own titles, and we will want to offer them to you even at prices we believe are needlessly high for e-books.”
Lots of lots of bits & ink spilled on the Macmillan / Amazon thing. If you read this blog, you have read all about it elsewhere.
But I don't see enough people taking Amazon to task for the absurd statement (excerpted above) that "Macmillan has a monopoly over their own titles." I don't think the word 'Monopoly' means what they think it means.
The way they released that "statement" -- as a forum post by an unnamed employee writing as "the Kindle team" was just so wrong. Scalzi nailed it in his post, comparing and contrasting that to how Macmillan's CEO managed their end of the communications cycle...
Posted by: Michael Sippey | February 02, 2010 at 12:01 PM