That does not change that Amazon is scummy but that they don't allow you data is actually a customer protection feature.

I'm not sure the situation is that simple. You bought the book through Amazon, but (in this case), you bought the book from the other poster. Putting them closer to, say, a shopping mall. As a shopper, who's has a stronger relationship to you—the store you bought something from, or the mall you bought it in?

And for the seller, it means that your only "customer" is Amazon. Who doesn't really care about you at all. If I were a seller, I'd rather have my customers be the people who are actually interested in the product I'm selling.

When commerce goes well, the buyer and seller create a relationship that benefits both of them. With Amazon being a strict gatekeeper, there's no way for that relationship to form, and the seller ends up being an interchangeable name on a screen.

The issue here is not who has the right to the data, it is customer satisfaction.

It is. But for me, part of customer satisfaction is buying from a seller that I know and trust. So I like buying things that Amazon is the seller, since I know and trust them. But Amazon doesn't make it easy to build up trust with the other sellers in their marketplace.

I cannot see how a mall is analogous. In the mall, you choose the stores you go to and then look for the product there. You are explicitly entering different stores, and you have the obvious ability to return to that store. That builds affinity with the store.

With Amazon, the typical entry point is to search for the product you want. You don't particularly care who is selling it so long as the price, delivery, and trustworthiness are there. Maybe if all other things are equal, I'll choose a vendor that I bought from before. But, to be honest, for most purchases, I've only ever thought of it as being fulfilled by Amazon or someone else.

Anecdotally, I literally can't recall the names of any vendors I've bought from in Amazon. But I do know the places I like in the mall.

> Anecdotally, I literally can't recall the names of any vendors I've bought from in Amazon. But I do know the places I like in the mall.

That's exactly my point. There are stores that you're buying from-many of them with physical locations as well. But because of the way Amazon sets things up, their identity fades into the background. They could be stores you like, just like the places you like in the mall. But Amazon makes it hard for you to know about them, and build a relationship with them.

Apple created Ios,Google Android.While Android is more open(you dont have to sell your app through Play),both vendors own their respective plateform,even Microsoft wants to adopt that model.Things will not get more open in the future,definetly less and less open.It always works like that.

Every other day it's someone saying they'll never use Facebook again, they'll never use Amazon again, they've quit Dropbox, they'll never use Google again. People in HN are quitting startups, quitting established companies, forswearing this and that, and getting angry at all kinds of shit day in and day out, and to be honest, I'm not sure it's ever made any bit of difference ever.

Even GoDaddy is still alive and strong and not one of these other companies has a founder go and shoot elephants and post about it on their official blog with pictures, after supporting SOPA and demeaning women on national television. Boycotting does nothing, and crying about it even less.

The last thing the world needs is to mock people for speaking up.

Actually for-real boycotting and similar types of actions like calls for coordinated divestiture do often cause changes, sometimes very big ones; but a few people posting on some internet forums is by no means a real boycott.

Personally I also have a number of issues with Amazon but none of them are serious enough to overcome the fact that they do retail sales on the Internet about a billion times better than anyone else (only Newegg comes close, and only in the narrow band of computers/electronics).

Stripe exists because they have a really awesome API and they make refunds super easy without penalties.

Square exists because Jack Dorsey is able to drum up a lot of VC money and engineering talent from followers of his personality cult. Not a lot of profitable business though, apparently.

I'm curious: which bookseller does let you do this? Barnes & Noble? Your neighborhood bookstore?