Unreasonable terms

I've been following the story of Angus and Robertson's new supplier terms with interest after a client mentioned it to me a week or so ago. The terms are quite remarkable and it's not surprising to see the backlash against A&R.

The best response has been the reply written by Michael Rakusin, director of Sydney's Tower Books, sadly the only copy I've read is behind the Crikey subscriber wall so the link doesn't give the full detail.

The gem from Michael's letter is this line,

it would seem to me paramount to stop blaming suppliers for your misfortunes, trying ever harder to squeeze them to death, and actually focus on your core incompetencies in order to redress them.

Michael also makes the excellent point that trying to adopt department store and supermarket tactics to publishers might be a mistake for a bookseller given variety stores have a range of products while book stores only have one.

Personally I ceased to be amazed a long time ago at the sort of nonsense big business tries on, either as a customer or supplier. What I do find amazing is the 5% DAILY interest payment for late remittances. I hope that's not compounding as the Annual Percentage Rate maxed out my calculator.

What makes this letter priceless is the arrogance in it, particularly the closing line,

"If you would like to discuss this with me in more detail, I am delighted to confirm an appointment with you at .........for ten minutes at my office....."

Unbelievable.

Microsoft overtaking Apache web server

Netcraft are claiming Microsoft's Internet Information Server might overtake the dominant Apache web server software early next year.

I'm wondering if those numbers are boosted by all the Windows Small Business Server installations that have IIS enabled but aren't really used. These would still appear in the statistics, but visiting them would only get the default page up.

I don't Apache's going to be knocked off any time soon.

Paul Kelly gets a sex change.

Strange times on the The Australian website last night. Paul Kelly seemed to have had a sex change.

Far from being a staid, serious middle aged fellow it turns out he's a regular chick who loves licking the tops of ice cream containers.

They say never judge a book by it's cover.

IceTV wins court case

IceTV, the Australian PVR guide company, has won the legal case bought against it by Channel Nine.

This is great news for Australian consumers and TV viewers.

I have to admit I was less than optimistic about IceTV's chances. In the past, Australian courts have tended to side with the incumbents in cases like this. The DtMS versus Telstra case where Telstra won their copyright claim on phone directories is the best example.

One thing to temper the good news is how accurate IceTV can be. Given the problems we find with Australian TV schedules, it's possible that an online schedule isn't much use anyway.