A recently-published book about the disappearance of Madeleine McCann has been pulled from Amazon, reportedly as a result of legal pressure.
Pat Brown’s book Profile of the Disappearance of Madeleine McCann was only launched a month ago, but Brown confirms on Twitter that it has been taken down. Given the importance of Amazon in the book retail world these days, it’s clear that the latest move will significantly hit sales opportunities.
There has been a lot of discussion in recent months about the importance of plurality in the online books market, and the dangers of having too much commercial power given to Amazon. The fact is, any books not listed on Amazon is going to be at a huge disadvantage, just as any music not listed on iTunes will undoubtedly suffer.
Amazon has not yet commented publicly about the decision to pull Pat Brown’s book.
But let’s hope that the company has a proper compliance process in place to ensure that books are only pulled if there is a genuine reason to do so.
Otherwise, the whole mess could become a book-banning free-for-all based on little more than lawyers fees and angry opinions.
http://100gf.wordpress.com/2011/07/26/pat-brown-book-on-madeleine-mccann-disappearance-is-pulled-by-amazon/
