Amazon.com is going after Kindle Website owners if it has the name “amazon” or “kindle” in the domain name. Amazon is sending letters to Websites warning them that they are infringing on trademarks and trying to force them to relinquish domain names, cancel Twitter accounts, etc.. AmazonKindleNews.com is on Amazon.com’s target list right now. Our Website doesn’t operate at a profit, but that isn’t stopping Amazon from telling us we must move the site and transfer the domain name to them.

We are considering whether or not to abide by the request, turn any Kindle sites we own into parody sites, contact attorneys, and/or cancel our affiliate relationship with Amazon.com, stop using their service altogether, and promote competing products/services on all the sites we own.

Like many of you, I am a work at home person putting my creative energy into Websites that are informative and contain unique and original content. If you have any advice on how you think I should proceed, please let me know. You can email me (Joe Tracy) via joetracy@earthlink.net .  And for those of you getting this notice via our “amazonkindleweb” Twitter account, please note that Amazon.com has demanded that we delete that account.

Thank you for your time and for those of you that take the time to contact me with your recommendation, a big thank you to you too. The Web is a great way to organize efforts, particularly when it comes to big companies that take it to the little guy.

(Amazon Kindle News) The holidays were good to both Amazon.com and its Kindle. According to Amazon.com, the Kindle has become the most gifted item in Amazon’s history. In a surprise, Amazon.com also announced that sales of Kindle books on Christmas day outpaced sales of actual books for the first time ever.

“We are grateful to our customers for making Kindle the most gifted item ever in our history,” said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com. “On behalf of Amazon.com employees around the world, we wish everyone happy holidays and happy reading!”

The news is good for Amazon.com which is facing new competition for its Kindle from Barnes and Noble and an upcoming threat from Apple with an expected “Apple Tablet” or “iTablet”. Amazon has established an early enough lead in the marketplace, however, to be able to thwart competitors in the near future while continuing to define the marketplace.

(Amazon Kindle News) The American Booksellers Association has sent a letter to the Department of Justice complaining about heavily discounted prices that Amazon.com, Target, and Walmart put on hardcover books. The group also complained about the selling of Kindle copies of major releases at under $10. We’ve included the full letter below and have highlighted the part about the Amazon Kindle:

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October 22, 2009

The Honorable Christine Varney
Assistant Attorney General
Antitrust Division
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Suite 3109
Washington, DC 20530

Molly Boast, Esquire
Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Matters
Antitrust Division
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Room 3210
Washington, DC 20530

Dear Ms. Varney and Ms. Boast,

We are writing on behalf of the American Booksellers Association, a 109-year-old trade organization representing the nation’s locally owned, independent booksellers. A core part of our mission is devoted to making books as widely available to American consumers as possible. We ask that the Department of Justice investigate practices by Amazon.com, Wal-Mart, and Target that we believe constitute illegal predatory pricing that is damaging to the book industry and harmful to consumers. We are requesting a meeting with you to discuss this urgent issue at your earliest possible opportunity.

As reported in the consumer and trade press this past week, Amazon.com, WalMart.com, and Target.com have engaged in a price war in the pre-sale of new hardcover bestsellers, including books from John Grisham, Stephen King, Barbara Kingsolver, Sarah Palin, and James Patterson. These books typically retail for between $25 and $35. As of writing of this letter, all three competitors are selling these and other titles for between $8.98 and $9.00.

Publishers sell these books to retailers at 45% – 50% off the suggested list price. For example, a $35 book, such as Mr. King’s Under the Dome, costs a retailer $17.50 or more. News reports suggest that publishers are not offering special terms to these big box retailers, and that the retailers are, in fact, taking orders for these books at prices far below cost. (In the case of Mr. King’s book, these retailers are losing as much as $8.50 on each unit sold.) We believe that Amazon.com, Wal-Mart, and Target are using these predatory pricing practices to attempt to win control of the market for hardcover bestsellers.

It’s important to note that the book industry is unlike other retail sectors. Clothing, jewelry, appliances, and other commercial goods are typically sold at a net price, leaving the seller free to determine the retail price and the margin these products will earn. Because publishers print list prices indelibly on jacket covers, and because books are sold at a discount off that retail price, there is a ceiling on the amount of margin a book retailer can earn.

The suggested list price set by the publisher reflects manufacturing costs — acquisition, editing, marketing, printing, binding, shipping, etc. — which vary significantly from book to book. By selling each of these titles below the cost these retailers pay to the publishers, and at the same price as each other, and at the same price as all other titles in these pricing schemes, Amazon.com, Wal-Mart, and Target are devaluing the very concept of the book. Authors and publishers, and ultimately consumers, stand to lose a great deal if this practice continues and/or grows.

What’s so troubling in the current situation is that none of the companies involved are engaged primarily in the sale of books. They’re using our most important products — mega bestsellers, which, ironically, are the most expensive books for publishers to bring to market — as a loss leader to attract customers to buy other, more profitable merchandise. The entire book industry is in danger of becoming collateral damage in this war.

It’s also important to note that this episode was precipitated by below-cost pricing of digital editions of new hardcover books by Amazon.com, many of those titles retailing for $9.99, and released simultaneously with the much higher-priced print editions. We believe the loss-leader pricing of digital content also bears scrutiny.

While on the surface it may seem that these lower prices will encourage more reading and a greater sharing of ideas in the culture, the reality is quite the opposite. Consider this quote from Mr. Grisham’s agent, David Gernert, that appeared in the New York Times.

“If readers come to believe that the value of a new book is $10, publishing as we know it is over. If you can buy Stephen King’s new novel or John Grisham’s ‘Ford County’ for $10, why would you buy a brilliant first novel for $25? I think we underestimate the effect to which extremely discounted best sellers take the consumer’s attention away from emerging writers.”

For our members — locally owned, independent bookstores — the effect will be devastating. There is simply no way for ABA members to compete. The net result will be the closing of many independent bookstores, and a concentration of power in the book industry in very few hands. Bill Petrocelli, owner of Book Passage in Corte Madera, California, an ABA member, was also quoted in the New York Times:

“You have a choke point where millions of writers are trying to reach millions of readers. But if it all has to go through a narrow funnel where there are only four or five buyers deciding what’s going to get published, the business is in trouble.”

We would find these practices questionable were they taking place in the market for widgets. That they are taking place in the market for books is catastrophic. If left unchecked, these predatory pricing policies will devastate not only the book industry, but our collective ability to maintain a society where the widest range of ideas are always made available to the public, and will allow the few remaining mega booksellers to raise prices to consumers unchecked.

We urge that the DOJ investigate and request an opportunity to come to Washington to discuss this at your earliest convenience.

Sincerely,

ABA Board of Directors:

Michael Tucker, President (Books Inc.–San Francisco, CA)
Becky Anderson, Vice President (Anderson’s Bookshops–Naperville, IL)
Steve Bercu (BookPeople–Austin, TX)
Betsy Burton (The King’s English Bookshop–Salt Lake City, UT)
Tom Campbell (The Regulator Bookshop–Durham, NC)
Dan Chartrand (Water Street Bookstore–Exeter, NH)
Cathy Langer (Tattered Cover Book Store–Denver, CO)
Beth Puffer (Bank Street Bookstore–New York, NY)
Ken White (SFSU Bookstore–San Francisco, CA)

(Amazon Kindle News) Amazon.com is refusing to sell the Kindle 2 and Kindle DX in Germany due to phone companies there wanting to charge too mcuh for wireless downloads. Part of the selling point of the Kindle 2 and Kindle DX is that readers can browse for and buy Kindle books wirelessly for free. Amazon contracts with various wireless services in order to offer the free wireless “lifetime” connection to users.

Amazon had been in talks with both T-Mobile and Vodafone in Germany in order to try to strike a deal allowing consumers to use the Kindle 2 and Kindle DX wireless features at no charge. However, Amazon ceased talks when both T-Mobile and Vodafone wouldn’t hit the price point Amazon wanted. As a result, Amazon is keeping the Kindle 2 and Kindle DX out of Germany, a place where the Sony Reader currently reigns after going on sale there three months ago.

(Amazon Kindle News) Prime View International (PVI), a leading supplier of ePaper display modules, has signed an agreement to acquire E-Ink Corporation, which deals with electronic paper display materials, including the ones used in Amazon.com’s Kindle 2 and Kindle DX. The cost of the acquisition is $215 million.

The move comes as the market for electronic book readers takes off.

“The market for electronic book devices such as the SONY Reader and Amazon Kindle is forecasted to grow from 1.1 million units in 2008 to 20 million units in 2012, a cumulative annual growth rate of 105% over the four-year period,” said iSuppli analyst Vinita Jakhanwal, “PVI and E Ink enabled this market back in 2005 and they have been the display market leaders ever since.”

The move is expected to brind down the price of electronic paper display materials, although not in the immediate future. Time will be needed for the two companies to transition into one, focused virtually exclusively on the ePaper marketplace.

E-Ink’s electronic reading technology is not only popular in ereaders, but also in cell phones.