Day Three: un-censored at Amazon

December 15th, 2009

Without

a word of explanation,

Amazon has lifted its censorship

of The Art of War: Sun Tzu, Barack Obama, and

the Modern Moment.  I wrote yesterday, “People have been

asking me what Amazon’s explanation for this is. There isn’t one,

and that’s very curious. You know how big they are on customer service,

how Bezos says “we’re not selling books or CDs or lawnmowers, we’re selling

customer service”? Well, they’re doubly oriented that way when you’re a content

provider, content being most of what they sell. Publish a Kindle boook, and

they give you a fast channel for communicating with them. They answer

the emails in a hurry. Cover doesn’t look right on the linked page?

Someone having trouble with a download? Presto! Response.

And they respond when I write them about censoring

my book, too. They acknowledge

getting the email.

That’s it.”

Well,

they stopped doing

even that.  Multiple emails to that

“fast channel” and to Jeff Bezos personally

went unanswered and un-responded to. Some time in

the wee dark hours last night they just lifted the censorship.

Mr. Bezos occasionally reads the email sent to

jeff@amazon.com if anyone cares to

comment on this

matter.