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'Not just another consumer product

1 July 2002

'Not just another consumer product

'Books are not just another consumer product. They form much of our society's repository of ideas; they are the bloodstream for the life of the mind. You have a responsibility to serve as well to gain, for your books have the protection of the First Amendment.'

From a letter to the American chain bookseller Borders, protesting at their new 'category management' scheme, which allows big publishers to pay for research and influence in-store presentation. The letter was signed, amongst others, by activists, Ralph Nader and Noam Chomsky , publisher Andre Schiffrin and Jonathan Tasini, President of the National Writers Union.