bitbutter

"Its a website that hosted classified documents that don't belong to them, and were obtained illegally. No cognizant web-host in the US would want to host such content"

Of course they would, and you know they will. Or do you really believe that Amazon will refuse to carry any product, over the coming years, that quotes from the leaked documents that are already in the public domain?

"As crass as it may sound, Amazon's in it for the money, not international politics."

Of course, and that's why a boycott is an appropriate response from people who feel negatively towards their decision; to submit to political pressure, and selectively apply their terms of use rules.

"Any other US host would have yanked wikileaks out too. It is unfair to only subject Amazon to such high morality."

I disagree. Whichever US host dropped wikileaks under these circumstances would have been a legitimate target for a boycott.

Amazon faced a difficult decision for sure, but handled it exceptionally badly wrt maintaining customer trust. Had there been even a hint of contrition in their statement, I (and I'm guessing others) may have felt less animosity towards them.

"but I think your expectations of Amazon are ridiculously high if you expect them to martyr their business prospects to make a political stand."

Whether it's true that to continue hosting Wikileaks would amount to martyrdom may depend on how widespread the support for Wikileaks is. This success or failure of this pledge campaign will give some indication of that.

In any case, there's no question that pols are to blame. But for better or worse, I hold Amazon to a higher standard than I do politicians.