Amazon boycott sought
Advocate for missing kids objects to link on anti-death penalty site
John Akron Beacon Journal, October 21, 2002

Amazon.com sells books. It sells toys from Toys R Us. And its logo appears on an anti-death penalty Web site that also seeks pen pals for death row inmates, including some of the country's more notorious child killers.

That really frosts 35-year-old Bret Vinocur and he's calling for a nationwide boycott of the Internet bookseller.

Vinocur discovered a German anti-death penalty site and its link to Amazon while doing research for his own site -- http://findmissingkids.com -- which he started about three months ago in response to this summer's child abductions.

He runs the site, which includes state and national sex offender registry information, pictures of missing children and links to other child advocacy groups, from his Columbus apartment.

He couldn't believe that Amazon could have its logos on both Toys R Us and a site that features killers such as Richard Allen Davis, who is on California's death row for the 1993 kidnapping and murder of 12-year-old Polly Klaas.

``It's just hypocritical,'' Vinocur said. ``You partner with Toys R Us, you partner with a site that supports child killers. It's just not logical.''

Amazon officials, however, say the link hardly is unique. It lets hundreds of thousands of Web sites covering a range of political positions attach its logo to their sites in exchange for a financial boost, and the company's logo is not an endorsement of any particular position.

The German site is called Alive Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. Logos for Seattle-based Amazon.com and Amazon's German site appear on its home page: www.todesstrafe-usa.de/death_penalty.

The site also solicits pen pals for inmates, including four in Ohio, who submit the requests in their own words.

The man who kidnapped Polly Klaas from a slumber party and murdered her can be reached at San Quentin State Prison. Davis writes:

``Greetings with a smile. I was just wondering could there be someone out in the world who would be with an open mind. Could there be anyone who could take the time to see for themselves, just who I really am.''

His picture and artwork are displayed on the German site.

``You're giving this guy an opportunity to meet women? It's a match.com for killers,'' Vinocur said.

Amazon's ``associate program'' started in 1996 and now includes 850,000 such sites, said spokeswoman Patty Smith. In exchange for providing a link to the bookseller, the sites receive a 2.5 percent to 15 percent referral fee depending on the purchase.

Amazon won't say how much it makes off the arrangement or how much its associates receive.

``It's a very successful relationship but we don't disclose the revenue,'' Smith said.

Amazon won't link to sites that advocate violence, discrimination, sexually explicit material, illegal activities or sites that violate intellectual property rights. Other than that, any site can steer business to Amazon and earn a referral fee.

Amazon reported 25 million customer accounts in 2001 and $3.1 billion in sales. One quarter of those sales came from overseas, with the United Kingdom and Germany representing the biggest international markets.

``We don't take a view on what the political or social perspectives are of the various Web sites that are part of the program,'' Smith said.

She said the company has reviewed the German site and has no intention of ceasing its arrangement.

``The site is not advocating violent activity or illegal activity. It's totally within the guidelines.''

Amazon also has been criticized for selling a book sympathetic to pedophiles called Understanding Loved Boys and Boylovers by David L. Riegel.

Amazon still lists the book, alongside an editorial dismissing it as defensive and amateur. ``This monograph uses both pseudo-scholarship and anecdotes in its attempt to justify its target audience's actions and feelings,'' according to the editorial.

Customer reviews, mostly from self-proclaimed pedophiles, rate the book highly.

``We don't want to be censoring our customers' reading habits,'' Smith said.

The same attitude prevails with associate sites.

``They're exercising their free speech and they have a link to Amazon and there's nothing wrong with that,'' Smith said.