Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Slumdog who wrote (84655)	11/19/1999 2:59:00 PM
From: HG	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

Hey detailer, I just changed my original post. Not seasoned by any chance. Just burnt at least once every quarter with at least one stock (DELL in Q1, AOL in Q3 '99). Keeps my feet on the ground....... Hope you're right...all the luck

To: Slumdog who wrote (84655)	11/20/1999 11:39:00 AM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

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