Has anyone been wondering what ever happened with the Amazon/Booksurge issue? Remember, Amazon wanted all Print-on-Demand (POD) publishers to use its subsidiary, BookSurge, to print their books or else…or else it would turn off the “buy” buttons for those books on Amazon.com? And remember, BookLocker filed an antitrust lawsuit against Amazon? Well, the saga continues…and that’s actually good news for those of us wanting to self-publish books using POD technology–and sell our books on Amazon.com.

Here’s the latest news via a story published today in Publishers Weekly:

Court Denies Amazon’s Motion to Dismiss BookLocker Antitrust Lawsuit

Independent POD publisher can proceed with its case

By Lynn Andriani — Publishers Weekly, 8/27/2009 7:52:00 AM

Independent print-on-demand publisher and bookseller BookLocker said yesterday that a court has denied Amazon’s motion to dismiss the antitrust lawsuit that BookLocker filed against Amazon, meaning that BookLocker can proceed with its case. The case stems from Amazon’s decision to make POD publishers use its BookSurge subsidiary to manufacture POD titles if they want to sell their titles on Amazon directly (publishers that don’t use BookSurge will have their buy button removed).

Chief U.S. District Judge John Woodcock Jr.’s 26-page order denied Amazon’s motion to dismiss, so the case may proceed. In a post on his Web site, Richard Hoy of BookLocker wrote, “Among other steps, we anticipate beginning discovery (where we are able to request documents from Amazon) shortly. Although there is still a long way to go, surviving the motion to dismiss is an important first step.”

The entire order is available here.