Maybe Amazon needs the money

It took the Bits blog in the NY Times to point this out:

Amazon is willing to alienate those customers it usually lavishes so much attention on. And it is willing to be vilified on the Internet for undermining writers, further denting its reputation.

To make all that trouble worthwhile, the goal must be pretty tempting.
Amazon hasn’t really explained what it is after, but here’s one compelling theory: The company just doesn’t have enough money to finance everything it wants to do. Rather than trim its ambitions, it is putting one side of its business through the wringer to pay for another.

Story.

I'm sure there's more to it, of course, but that does seem obvious.