A federal court judge in Maine has denied a motion by Amazon.com Inc. to dismiss an antitrust lawsuit brought last year by an independent print-on-demand publisher, BookLocker.com.

　　The lawsuit, which seeks class action status, takes issue with the Seattle online retailer’s (NASDAQ: AMZN) decision to channel all print-on-demand books sold on its websites through its own printing subsidiary, BookSurge. A variety of publishers and university presses use print-on-demand to derive revenue from older, out-of-print books, allowing them to be printed individually or in small batches, rather than doing a large, expensive print run of hundreds or thousands of copies.

　　For more on Amazon.com’s motion being denied by a federal court judge in Maine, see TechFlash here.