Well, that's sort of an underlying problem with markets in general though, now isn't it? The mass of consumers create momentum that shift what is and isn't viable. It happens in all sorts of products, phones for example shifted to non-removable batteries.
Regardless to your personal stance on this issue, the mass of consumers were fine with it and therefore demand has dictated largely what's reasonably available to your average citizen--phones with difficult to swap batteries. There are still some options but they're scarce and require tradeoffs from most flagship phones.
That's with something less (yet increasingly) significant as a smart phone. When your product is information such as books, or education, such as in universities, suddenly you have markets and the masses dictating what's available and indirectly censoring content. Heck, it happens in science all the time these days. There are dominant groups and names in fields who hold significant sway, they often influence funding agencies and ultimately influence where scientists can viably perform research (unless they can self fund their work).
But yes, markets can and do censor based on demand. I don't blame a small bookstore owner in this context for censoring, it's a systemic issue they have little power over. As you point out they have to pick and choose based on demand signal, they're running a business after all, yet if the only source of the information can be obtained through bookstores, suddenly markets are indirectly dictating to bookstores who indirectly dictate to consumers what information is available.
Sometimes we want this effect, we want markets to help us pressure and bubble up certain products or solutions to the top, other times we might not want this to be the case (as in free speech and flow of information).
Regardless to your personal stance on this issue, the mass of consumers were fine with it and therefore demand has dictated largely what's reasonably available to your average citizen--phones with difficult to swap batteries. There are still some options but they're scarce and require tradeoffs from most flagship phones.
That's with something less (yet increasingly) significant as a smart phone. When your product is information such as books, or education, such as in universities, suddenly you have markets and the masses dictating what's available and indirectly censoring content. Heck, it happens in science all the time these days. There are dominant groups and names in fields who hold significant sway, they often influence funding agencies and ultimately influence where scientists can viably perform research (unless they can self fund their work).
But yes, markets can and do censor based on demand. I don't blame a small bookstore owner in this context for censoring, it's a systemic issue they have little power over. As you point out they have to pick and choose based on demand signal, they're running a business after all, yet if the only source of the information can be obtained through bookstores, suddenly markets are indirectly dictating to bookstores who indirectly dictate to consumers what information is available.
Sometimes we want this effect, we want markets to help us pressure and bubble up certain products or solutions to the top, other times we might not want this to be the case (as in free speech and flow of information).