We book lovers are likely aware of the recent Amazon patent case on 1-Click Shopping and Affiliates.

For a good background, please refer to http://www.oreilly.com/ask_tim/index.html

Tim O'Reilly put it wonderfully when he said:
"I cited sustainable agriculture as a guiding metaphor. If you take from the soil and don't give anything back, crop yields eventually decline. If you look at the computer industry (and in fact most industries that rely on proprietary roadblocks to innovation), they resemble slash-and-burn agriculture. You strip the soil of its nutrients and move on. A fertile new field is developed, usually by people on the fringes of commercial activity, who are building for the love of it. There is a rich soil of ideas, the shared heritage of all practitioners in the field. Innovation comes naturally, since anyone can build on what has gone before. Talent is naturally rewarded. "

Please see: http://www.oreilly.com/ask_tim/bezos_0300.html

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In my righteous indignation, I forgot to deliver the point. So here it is:

Even if Amazon gives up their patent claim, it will not be the end.

Big corporations and newly big Ecommerce corporations has this DNA that tells them to profit/expand at all cost. Sometimes we need to stand by grassroot communities that stand in their path of relentless expansion, be they open source communities, local bookstores, or forums like this one.

A community fosters surprising innovations, gives people a shared identity, and in the case of physical book stores, gives back to community in taxes. A community is a common home which needs care and unending vigilance.

Next time when you need a book, resist the urge to point and click to Amazon, and point down the local bookstore instead.