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To: Rarebird who wrote (50266)	3/11/2000 9:17:00 AM
From: long-gone	Respond to of 116790

This is interesting: Loss-making Amazon turns to bullying For some time it has disturbed us to see some corporations turn away from providing goods and services, choosing instead to seek special privileges (economists call it "rent-seeking"). You have probably heard of amazon.com. That company applied for patents and recently received them for (a) the concept of getting someone else to offer links to products selling on your web site, and (b) the concept of clicking a link to buy something (as opposed to filling out a lot of information over and over when they already have it on file). Yes, this is ridiculous. It is also very serious. Amazon now appears to be legally able to ban others from using these concepts, or can charge them rent for doing so. It's hard to find a story summarizing this situation, but here is a recent article from the Irish Times that helps a lot. by Karlin Lillington MAYBE it's those continuously absent profits that have warped the company's attitudes. Whatever the cause, book-to-kitchen-sinkseller Amazon seems to be manifesting some serious corporate personality defects. In short, Amazon is acquiring the attitude and intentions of an Internet bully. This week, Amazon stunned and angered Web users by copyrighting its affiliate programmes technology. This programme allows website owners to earn a small commission by linking to the Amazon site, thus steering potential customers in Amazon's direction. Many sites, such as music seller CDNow and Pets.com, use the same basic affiliate programme technology. This isn't the first time Amazon has thrown its considerable weight around. Last year, it took out a patent on its "One-Click" technology, which allows a registered customer to buy items at a single mouse-click by accessing stored purchaser details. Amazon immediately filed suit against its main book-selling competitor, BarnesandNoble.com, for patent infringement. Barnes and Noble uses a similar system. That suit is still pending, but in the meantime, Amazon has managed to get an injunction against BarnesandNoble.com to desist from using the technology until the suit is decided. What a bully. Amazon says it doesn't yet know what it will do with its new patent, which could allow it to charge all other sites for using the technology, (cont) progress.org