The Amazon programs are the way copyright is supposed to work.
A lot of authors get by on the bits of money they get from various users of their work, and the Internet doesn't change all of that.
It certainly is a threat.
We've never heard of anything like this. It really undermines the author's credibility and authority even if it's mostly inconsequential details. It's like putting a negative book review on the cover.
This sounds like the way to go. If there is a new way to extract value from a book, then the author and the publisher should share in this income.
It's potentially a good thing, if it succeeds in getting the public's attention on books and reading. We would hope some of the benefit would spill over to lesser-known titles.
I don't think it's particularly close under copyright law. You're not allowed to copy works for commercial purposes without a license, and that's precisely what they're doing.
Books that are out of print frequently come back in print. A university press or a smaller house may bring it back, or it may come back when the author publishes a new book with a major publisher.
It would have set an awful precedent..
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