FOCUS-Amazon.com stops German Mein Kampf sales
(recasts, adds detail)
By Chris Stetkiewicz
SEATTLE, Nov 18 (Reuters) - Online retail pioneer
Amazon.com Inc. <AMZN.O> said on Thursday it will stop selling
Adolf Hitler's prison-penned manifesto "Mein Kampf" in Germany,
but two major rivals said they had no plans to follow suit.
Citing German laws prohibiting sales of hate literature and
under pressure from the Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Center in
Los Angeles, Amazon will restrict sales of the hate-filled
book.
"We're not shipping it into Germany. It's still available
at our Web site and can be shipped elsewhere," Amazon spokesman
Bill Curry said.
But rivals Barnesandnoble.com Inc. <BNBN.O> and Borders
Group Inc. <BGP.N> will continue -- at least for now -- to ship
the heavily anti-Semitic book, which Hitler wrote in prison
years before he led the Nazi party to power in 1933.
The book's English version was among Amazon's most popular
titles in Germany. The Wiesenthal Center filed legal complaints
against Amazon and other Web-based book sellers in August.
"It's clear that the German-language version is banned in
Germany. It's less clear about the English version and we
thought that given that uncertainty the prudent thing was to
stop shipping it into Germany," Curry added.
The Wiesenthal Center's Associate Dean, Rabbi Abraham
Cooper, who had recently spoken with Amazon Chief Executive
Jeff Bezos, said, "This is a significant victory for the
ongoing efforts of German authorities to continue their
struggle against any resurgence of Nazism."
Barnesandnoble.com and Borders are reviewing their policies
on the book, but have no current plans to restrict sales.
"Our attorneys are reviewing the German law. Until they are
finished with that process, we won't make a decision," said
Mary Ellen Keating, spokeswoman for Barnes & Noble Inc.<BKS.N>,
which owns 40 percent of the Web site.
Richard Fahle, who edits Borders's Web site Borders.com,
said the company's systems will not allow it to halt sales to
one country without pulling the title altogether.
"We still sell it to anyone who orders it, in English only.
As a historical document it has value and we won't limit where
it can be sold," Fahle said. He said Borders had not heard from
the Wiesenthal Center but would continue to look at the issue.
In August, German media giant Bertelsmann AG <BTGGga.DE>,
which also owns 40 percent of Barnesandnoble.com, recommended
the Web site stop selling hate literature in Germany and pulled
Mein Kampf from its own online book store.
Seattle-based Amazon also said it would stop computer
generated e-mail marketing of other anti-Semitic books to Mein
Kampf buyers, a technique used to induce customers to make
similar purchases.
Customers who research Mein Kampf, which sells for $42 in
hardcover and $14.40 in paperback, find links to books like
"White Power," by late U.S. Nazi Party leader George Lincoln
Rockwell and automaker Henry Ford's "International Jew."
Amazon also lists a composite customer review of Mein
Kampf, giving it 3.5 stars out of a possible five. Amazon's
review dubs the book "a look into the hateful mind of the
century's most evil figure" and a "historical document."
Amazon.com does not disclose data on individual book sales
or provide country-by-country figures. But in September the Web
site listed Mein Kampf as No.2 on its "uniquely best selling"
list in Germany, suggesting the book is much more popular in
Germany than among other Amazon customers.
Amazon sold $610 million worth of books in 1998 to buyers
in 160 countries.
REUTERS
Rtr 20:33 11-18-99 |
