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Comment by code4tee | Hacker News Reader

There’s a difference between censorship and a book publisher deciding they don’t want to publish or sell a book.

This appears to be a case of the later. He’s free to print and distribute his book, but no private company is under any obligation to help him in that endeavor.

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Once they publisher reaches near monopoly status this is censorship.

They don’t have a monopoly on book publishing though. Look at how many book publishers there are out there.

What? I'd be shocked if Amazon even published a majority of books sold. There is no way they are monopoly or even close. I looked and couldn't find reliable stats on it. Does anyone else have any?

A majority by number of unique titles, or by sales volume? I would not be surprised to see Amazon publishing a very large fraction of 'long-tail' (almost self-published) books, and these likely make up a large fraction of all titles published.

What about eBooks?

Amazon is insignificant as a book publisher. They could have a near monopoly on selling books, but even that is unlikely.

Not claiming that a legal challenge has merit, but in the author's words:

> I may just make it available for download and people can contribute if they like BUT THAT IS NOT THE POINT. Amazon is by far the largest channel for book sales worldwide. The people who need to see this the most will not.

Amazon is still selling Mein Kampf, they don't seem to care about it as long as it brings profit?

Books about about Covid-19, whether truths or conspiracy theories, can be reasonably expected to bring in profit.

Mein Kampf is an important document for understanding one of the most significant and tragic events in history. Only the truly ignorant would try to remove it.

Hardly that simple. Germany had banned publication until 2015.

Notably not under German law against extremist propaganda, but through copyright law, also affecting some international printings of it. Which explains the date of 2015: 70 years after the death of the author.

Unedited/-commented versions were put on the index later (which e.g. forbids advertising them in Germany, selling to minors, ...)

While I haven't read either, I expect that Mein Kampf has more historical value than the COVID book in question.

> There’s a difference between censorship and a book publisher deciding they don’t want to publish or sell a book.

If the publisher is actually pressured by the government, then that is a sneaky form of censorship masquerading as the choice made by a private-sector enterprise.

In a system that falls short of pure, unbridled capitalism, there is no such thing as a purely private-sector decision.

Corporations have to comply to regulations and rules, and those can perpetrate censorship.

You can always just move to another country. Censorship is a complete myth.

Right except no, you cannot always just move to another country, either. Sometimes you get shot in the back climbing a barbed-wire fence.

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