Bartleby Prefers Not to See Amazon Master Books Domain
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Herman Melville’s character Bartleby the scrivener famously said he “would prefer not to,” and 160 years later the owner of Bartleby’s Books would prefer not to see Amazon.com Inc. control Internet addresses ending in .book.
“I would just hate to see the cultural process that books represent be controlled by a single firm,” John Thomson, owner of Bartleby’s in Washington and president of the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America Inc., said in an interview.