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Amazon invokes Orwell in war with publishers
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/08/09/amazon-invokes-orwell-in-war-with-publishers/
From Orwell's Burma Passport
Amazon invokes Orwell in war with publishers
By Reuters
Saturday, August 9, 2014 18:27 EDT
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The plot of the Amazon-Hachette battle over ebook prices just acquired a strange literary twist.
Amazon is asking readers to help in its running dispute with Hachette Book Group by emailing Hachette’s CEO. But it may have missed the mark when it picked on English writer George Orwell to make its point.
In a message from the Amazon Books Team on a website on Friday evening, Amazon.com Inc reiterated its arguments for cheaper ebooks, and suggested people email Hachette CEO Michael Pietsch. The company published Pietsch’s email address and listed key points people might want to make.
In its message, also emailed to writers who publish directly on its Kindle e-readers, Amazon compared the advent of ebooks to the arrival of paperback books in the 1930s. It said many in the literary establishment and book trade were similarly suspicious about cheaper reading and the assault on hardback books. It put Orwell into the anti-paperback camp.