ALBANY, N.Y. --The battle pitting independent bookstores against Amazon and the Big 6 is just getting started.
The Book House in Stuyvesant Plaza is one of the latest independent bookstores in our area to join a class action lawsuit against Amazon.
"If you buy an ebook on amazon, you have to read it on kindle or device with kindle app," said Attorney Alyson Decker.
Alyson Decker, the lead attorney on the case, says Amazon and the Big 6 publishing companies are monopolizing the market by excluding brick and mortar stores like the bookhouse from selling ebooks. Decker says amazon has formed contracts and uses digital rights management to make it hard for anyone to make a copy.
"This restriction makes it so that ebooks that are not on the kindle have to be bought through Amazon,' said Decker.
"If the book can only be read on the kindle, seems like an unfair advantage," said Bookbarn owner Daniel Briggs.
Daniel Briggs of bookbarn who is not a part of the lawsuit says online retailers have been chipping away at his business.
"It hurts business and it's sad because there is nothing like holding the book," said Briggs.
"Amazon not only controls the ereader market, it has the largest market share of any participator in the market out there," said Decker.
Decker hopes as a result of the suit independent book stores will be allowed to sell ebooks for kindle and other similar devices.
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