Amazon Overcharging Publishers For Tax 184
00_NOP writes "Amazon is taking fire in the UK for insisting that publishers pay them for 20% VAT (sales tax) when in fact the online retailer is only paying 3% VAT. 'The firm is able to wield such power over publishers because it has a near monopoly of the UK digital book publishing market. According to reliable estimates, it sells nine out of 10 ebooks in the UK, while using its Luxembourg tax status to wring more profitable terms from publishers. ... In private, British authors and publishers express fears that Amazon's dominance will send the industry into further decline.' Given that the Kindle is rubbish at displaying maths and science and that Amazon is as dangerous a monopoly as Microsoft ever was, is it not time that regulators and consumers stood up to them?"
Amazon is also facing criticism right now for allegedly shutting down a woman's account and remotely wiping her Kindle, then refusing to provide information about why it did so.
Re:Never attribute to malice... (Score:5, Funny)
Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity
I have heard this saying before. But I have never understood why I should consider it to be correct.
It shouldn't be considered correct. This saying is promulgated by malicious people in a conspiracy to conceal their actions. There is no way that common acceptance of such a broad generalization could be explained by mere stupidity.
Re:Better devices? (Score:5, Funny)
...You do realize that PDF is meant for printing. The P in the acronym kinda gives it away....
So, the 'P' in PDF, which stands for 'Portable Document Format', is supposed to remind us, somehow, of printing?
Does the 'G' in Gif somehow remind us of giraffes?
How do I subscribe to your newsletter?
cheers,