Popular hack business self-help writer Seth Godin blogs about how his most recent book is not going to be sold by Apple's iBookstore:

I just found out that Apple is rejecting my new manifesto Stop Stealing Dreams and won’t carry it in their store because inside the manifesto are links to buy the books I mention in the bibliography.

Quoting here from their note to me, rejecting the book: “Multiple links to Amazon store. IE page 35, David Weinberger link.”

And there’s the conflict. We’re heading to a world where there are just a handful of influential bookstores (Amazon, Apple, Nook…) and one by one, the principles of open access are disappearing. Apple, apparently, won’t carry an ebook that contains a link to buy a hardcover book from Amazon.

Now. There are quite a few different arguments to be made here. Godin had an exclusive deal with Amazon for a while, and Amazon's proprietary Kindle e-book format isn't exactly a case for open access. I'm willing to bet that Amazon wouldn't sell books with links to Apple's iBookstore, either. And as John Gruber points out, Barnes & Noble probably wouldn't sell books that had Borders coupons in them, back in the day.

But many people have argued—myself included—that bookstores are different from other retail stores, because they are selling information, and access to information should always be easy. A booksellers' primary job should be to make sure the desired information gets into the customer's hands, whether it results in a profit for the bookstore or not. Let's decide this once and for all in a Slog poll, shall we?