[Newspoetry] amazon.com Attempts to Invade Privacy

[Mike Lehman]

I an irrelevant exercise of corporate power and greed....
One more reason to revoke the privileges that corporations have as
actual "persons" under current interpretations of US law.

Bookstore
                  fights
                  Amazon.com's
                  questions
                  about sex

                  October 21, 1999
                  Web posted at: 12:56 PM EDT (1656 GMT)

                  MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- The owners of a feminist bookstore
involved in a
                  trademark infringement dispute with Amazon.com want
the company barred
                  from asking about their sexual orientation.

                  Amazon Bookstore said that such matters are irrelevant
and that its owners
                  should not have to answer such questions, which were
posed during pretrial
                  depositions last month.

                  "We were outraged by it," said Barbara Wieser, the
store's general manager.
                  "What does our sexual preference have to do with a
trademark case?
                  Nothing."

                  The bookstore sued Amazon.com in April over its use of
the name Amazon,
                  saying it creates confusion in the public mind. The
bookstore, which has
                  been part of the Minneapolis literary community since
1970, claims rights to
                  the trademark through its 30 years of use.

                  Amazon.com says it intends to demonstrate that Amazon
Bookstore caters
                  to lesbians, while the Internet company has a
general-interest audience.

                  "If you're not in the same business, the likelihood of
confusion declines
                  dramatically," Amazon.com spokesman Bill Curry said
this week.

                    Copyright 1999 The Associated Press. All rights
reserved. This material may not be
                               published, broadcast, rewritten, or
redistributed.