Transcript: Amazon's Bold Move

This is a partial transcript from "Your World with Neil Cavuto," November 4, 2005, that was edited for clarity.

NEIL CAVUTO, HOST: Any page, any chapter — it’s like iTunes (search), but with books. It is the latest innovation coming from online giant Amazon.com (search).

Joining me now, its chairman and CEO, Jeff Bezos.

Jeff, now its authors you’re getting after here. How does this work?

JEFF BEZOS, CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENT & CEO, AMAZON.COM: Well, we’re announcing two new programs today, Neil.

One is called Amazon Pages (search), and the other one is called Amazon Upgrade (search). Pages kind of completely unbundles the books, so you can go in and buy one page at a time from any book. You can buy a page. You can buy a chapter. You can buy the whole book. Amazon Upgrade is a little bit different.

You buy the physical book and then, for a small, incremental fee, you also get 24/7 perpetual online access to that book. So, let`s say you buy a software programming book. You want to get the physical book because you do want to have it on your shelf maybe for long reading sessions. But, if you ever want to use it as a reference, any time you`re at your computer terminal, any time you have Web access, you will be able to quickly access that book...

CAVUTO: Well...

BEZOS: ... as well.

CAVUTO: Well, are authors hunk...

BEZOS: So, you get it both ways.

CAVUTO: Are authors hunky-dory with this? Can you legally do this?

BEZOS: Well, yes, we have been doing something — this comes out of — it`s an evolution of a program called Search Inside the Book (search), which we started two years ago.

That has grown very successfully over the last two years and now is one of every two books that we sell within the United States, is in the Search Inside the Book program.

Our point of view on this is, we do this in cooperation with the copyright holders. So, we do this with the publishers, with the authors. These services will sell pages for a few cents a page.

CAVUTO: So, this isn`t like...

BEZOS: We will sell the...

CAVUTO: This isn`t like what Google (search) wants to do? And that is, you know, to sort of log all books out there and so you can go up and research and essentially have just access to the book?

BEZOS: Well, our goal is to have all books in these programs, but to do it with the cooperation of publishers and authors. So, our viewpoint on this...

CAVUTO: What if the author...

BEZOS: ... is, it`s very important...

CAVUTO: But, let`s say the author isn`t keen on this. Let`s say it`s my book you`re doing this to.

BEZOS: Well, if the copyright...

CAVUTO: And I told you, Jeff, you know, I don`t want you doing this.

BEZOS: If the copyright holder does not want the book to be made available, our point of view on this — and we feel very strongly about it — that`s the copyright holder`s decision.

CAVUTO: So, you would — you run it by them. They say yes or no and then you go?

BEZOS: The copyright holder is the one who gets to make these decisions. That`s our point of view. They own the intellectual property. They get to make these decisions.

What we think we have constructed with Amazon Pages and Amazon Upgrade is a system that is a win-win-win. It`s good for the publisher. It`s good for the customer. It`s good for the author. And it`s good for Amazon.com, too.

CAVUTO: All right, Jeff Bezos, always a pleasure. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it.

BEZOS: Neil, it`s my pleasure. Thank you.

CAVUTO: All right — Jeff Bezos.

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