Here's a nice quote (below) from someone who's obviously never visited a bookstore or magazine rack: "Amazon is not a publisher, it's a store. The First Amendment was not intended for stores, it was intended for the press." --DBM] ********** From: "Xeni Jardin" <xeniat_private> To: "Declan McCullagh" <declanat_private> Subject: FW: [SA Daily] Greenberg Blasts Amazon for Intifada.com Date: Mon, 10 Sep 2001 16:36:35 -0700 >From my alma mater, Silicon Alley Reporter: interesting piece today on criticism that Amazon.com's is "supporting" the Intifada from Eric Greenberg (founder of Internet professional service firms Scient and Viant), who accuses Amazon of becoming part of the "killing machine--one intent on eradicating the Jewish state and potentially all Jewish people." Regarding free speech concerns Greenberg says "Amazon is not a publisher, it's a store. The First Amendment was not intended for stores, it was intended for the press, and I would ask them what kind of business they think they are in." XJ -----Original Message----- From: Silicon Alley Daily [mailto:newsat_private] Sent: Monday, September 10, 2001 10:48 AM www.siliconalleydaily.com Amazon Criticized for Links to Intifada.com by Dakota Smith The Middle East conflict has ensnared Amazon.com in its vituperative grip. The online bookseller's seemingly innocuous Associate Program, a customer acquisition service that pays websites to send them customers, has been criticized by one tech industry leader because it includes a Palestinian-backed website. Visitors to Intifada.com are greeted with the Amazon Associate Program logo when they click on the "Be Part of the Intifada" section. Next to the logo it reads: "You can buy books about the Intifada and Palestine from Amazon.com. As a member of the Amazon.com Associates Program, Intifada.com earns referral fees based on a percentage of sales made via the Amazon.com link on our website. This will go towards developing the site." An indignant Eric Greenberg, founder of Scient, Viant, and 12 Entrepreneuring, sent out an e-mail over the weekend to Jewish business leaders and politicians slamming Amazon. With Amazon.com essentially supporting Intifada.com, according to Greenberg, the online retailer is part of the "killing machine--one intent on eradicating the Jewish state and potentially all Jewish people." Amazon spokesman Bill Curry said Amazon has received earlier e-mails concerning Intifada.com, but defends having the site as a partner. "We have scoured their site, and we have been unable to find any information tying this group to any violation of our operating agreement," Curry said. "If anyone has any information that they are in violation of the operating agreement, we would love to have it." Amazon has more than 600,000 members in its Associate Program, ranging from news and entertainment to special-interest sites. Recalling an instance when Amazon.com denied a site partnership, Curry said the company stopped working with a website called The 32 County Sovereignty, after it was discovered the site was affiliated with the Real IRA, a terrorist group in Northern Ireland. "Whatever anyone thinks about the intifada, this is a news site about the intifada," Curry said. "We don't find any evidence that they are raising money for violence, or advocating violence." According to Amazon's contract, available on its website, applications to its Associates Program can be rejected if the site is deemed unsuitable. Those sites deemed unsuitable include ones that "promote violence; promote discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation, or age; promote illegal activities." If the company was to back off one controversial issue, "then there is no drawing the line," Curry said. "As a bookseller, like the media, we are committed to the vigorous and open discussion of all ideas." In response to Curry's comments, Greenberg said Amazon is hiding behind First Amendment rights. "Amazon is not a publisher, it's a store," Greenberg said. "The First Amendment was not intended for stores, it was intended for the press, and I would ask them what kind of business they think they are in." Meanwhile, the Intifada.com site is run by Qasem Qasem, a 24-year-old medical student at graduate school in Dublin, Ireland, and a member of the Palestinian Student Union there. Asked about the criticism of the relationship between his website and Amazon, Qasem seem nonplussed, though he did point out that Amazon.fr, the French version of Amazon.com, had removed the Associate link from his site. "Have you seen the site? We're not talking about [violence]," Qasem said. According to Qasem, the monies earned from Amazon.com have been negligible, though they do help finance running the site. Ira Stoll, the Brooklyn-based editor of Smartertimes, a watchdog site of The New York Times, points out that though there is no evidence that the monies raised by Amazon.com are directly being used to fund violence, it is illegal, under the 1996 Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, for Americans to finance terrorist groups. "If indeed any American is, as the Greenberg e-mail puts it, 'generating funds for the Palestinians to murder innocent people,' it is a vile crime and a matter for federal prosecutors to deal with," Stoll wrote in an e-mail. "If the proprietors of Intifada.com are, on the other hand, using the money merely to spread anti-Israel propaganda, well, then, I vigorously disagree with them, but I wouldn't demand that Amazon sever any connection to them." 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