It's the INTERNET vs creative people again.
The power is with AMAZON and GOOGLE...and the CEOs of these disgusting companies are just as irrational as any Muslim jihadist. MY WAY or the HIGHWAY. That's power corrupting.
As we saw in the blog world, where any fat nobody and clueless Swedish meatball could become drunk with power and not care how they were killing an artist's sales...AMAZON is baldly shark-biting those who are creative enough to provide content for it.
I'm not saying this is anything new...that there were never bribes or power plays in getting Tower Records to put up a big promotion for a particular artist, or for Macy's to stock a particular brand of underwear (or stock one brand and NOT another). But its never been more obvious or ruthless.
Like Putin and Hitler, Jeff Bezos and his AMAZON warriors have reached such a level of insane Fascism they don't have to even pretend to be fair. They don't have to answer to anybody. There's no conscience at all.
AMAZON has been kicking artists in the balls for years: YOU must accept OUR price for mp3 sales, and YOU must accept OUR terms if we sell your coffee pots, and YOU must accept OUR terms if you want to sell used books and undercut the royalties of an author.
As Hitler scapegoated the Jews, Bezos is scapegoating "greedy publishers." HE is not greedy. HE is not currently in a war for world domination with Google (Google, who are now so deeply in the retail business, the music streaming business, etc. etc.). No, Bezos is telling the world, "I want to give you low prices and THESE JEW BASTARDS won't let me!"
How lopsided is the balance of power, when DISNEY is swatted down? Well, this is why Internet piracy is so rampant. DISNEY and the other copyright owners don't have any power. They can't go to a Senator or the President and say "Strengthen the law, and strengthen law enforcement." Not when the answer is, "We can't...Google and Amazon control us, and Comcast and the ISP's control us..."
What will happen? DISNEY will have to cheap-shit their movies, that's all. They'll have to adjust their budget. And all the spoiled brats of Comic-Con will gripe, "The special effects weren't as good...the script wasn't as good...why should we pay when this is only worth downloading free?"
Shouldn't AMAZON be caring that they'll get less sales if people don't think the stuff is worth buying? Nah. "Short sighted businessmen," to use a Joni Mitchell phrase, just don't care. They frack. They exploit. Jeff Bezos is making so much money selling bed sheets and coffee pots, he could care less about DVDs and books. It's just "product" and he has plenty of it. He's busy figuring out how to bankrupt super markets and make people buy all their groceries from AMAZON instead. And if a bread company insists on a retail price of $2.50 for a loaf, and can't make a profit if they sell it to AMAZON for under $1.25...LET THEM EAT CAKE.
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