I met Jeff Kurtti on the Disney Magic -- he did a number of presentations on there that we went to. He has a very dry sense of humor -- seems like a nice queen. ;)

But yeah, Amazon obviously had an algorithm frack up and should be notified.

or, it's a fake email ?

I had considered it but didn't find anything mentioned on the phishing reporting sites.

Also given that the email cited a book which presumably he has purchased, it probably came from Amazon.

I also thought it might have been a fake - I get enough weird emails from "paypal" and "ebay" - but this one sadly seems legit. The way it was sent, the address it was sent to, and the content of the email are completely in line with the other emails I'm inundated with from amazon every day.

So I just got a call from a "Peg Anderson" of Amazon.com's Executive Customer Relations.

She initiated the call by explaining that the algorithms that are used to generate recommendations are complicated and not always predictable. She then asked me if I had read the book in question. I told her that I hadn't. She told me that she did, and had a copy in her personal library. I asked her to tell me what it was about and she proceeded to give the synopsis from Amazon's page. I told that although I hadn't read the book, I had gone to the author's blog and I was certain that the book was a hate book... because that's how the author sells it.

She went to the blog as we spoke. Her tone changed pretty dramatically. She explained that she didn't know if Amazon could remove a book from sale - that it was a very delicate issue.

I told her that I'm anti-censorship, and would never want to stop amazon from selling anything - but I pointed out that selling media without taking a stance is one thing, but actually making recommendations is something altogether different. I also told her that I know that Amazon generates a huge amount of revenue charging publishers for placement. I said that I imagined that Disney is probably one of their advertising department's bigger clients, and that they probably wouldn't be happy with a book that they published about their biggest theme park resort being used as a springboard to promote anti-semitic literature.

She assured me that she'd be passing this issue to the "higher-ups" and "webmasters" and suggested that I go into my Amazon history and shut off the "use this book for recommendations" option. I told her that it was water under the bridge for me and that actually, I'd be interested to see how the situation might change as a result of my complaint. I explained that I had forwarded the initial email to Disney and that I'd be happy to forward any follow-ups they'd email me about the situation.

She ended the conversation by backpedaling: "I just want you to know that even though I said this book was in my personal library, that doesn't mean that I share the beliefs of the author. I have 7,000 books in my library."

Yeah, that whole "personal library" thing is really bizarre... I mean.. huh??!?!? Why would you even say that?

Uh, yeah. "Oh, that book you found offensive? I own that book." Why??

She seemed a little iffy....if you don't hear anything further I'd contact them again.