[Macworld]

Post your comments for DOJ files ebook price fixing lawsuit against Apple here

[n4hhe]

Just because Amazon raised their prices doesn't mean Apple had anything to do with it.

Apple's pricing is very simple: Its your product so you set the selling price and pay Apple a 30% commission. You may not wholesale to anyone at a price lower than you give to Apple else Apple will quit carrying your product. No one is holding a gun to your head forcing you to do business with or through Apple. The only reason you do business with Apple is because it is to your profit.

I think it is Amazon who is the price conspirator here. It is Amazon who sets their own selling prices. If Amazon is willing to take less than 30% then Apple's market share is theirs for the taking.

[leicaman]

This is a ludicrous prosecution. Publishers were the victims of Amazon until Apple came along and gave the market some competition. Did it hurt Amazon? Apparently not. Did it let publishers set their own prices? Yes. Did all publishers go with Apple? No. So where's the anti-trust. There's room for both.

Maybe Amazon raised some prices, but plenty of stuff is still $9.99 and much less.

They don't have a case.

[GeorgeKafantaris]

Apple and iPhone: Overrated, overpriced and overbearing.

[wardoggie]

GeorgeKafantaris, on 11 April 2012 - 09:07 AM, said:

Apple and iPhone: Overrated, overpriced and overbearing.

Ohhhh, sick burn!

[ppgreat]

GeorgeKafantaris, on 11 April 2012 - 09:07 AM, said:

Apple and iPhone: Overrated, overpriced and overbearing.

So say the standard bearers of mediocrity.

[dennishenley]

>>Just because Amazon raised their prices doesn't mean Apple had anything to do with it.

Oh come on. Where have you been? Amazon was trying to convince publishers that they should sell ebooks at a lower price since the costs of an ebook were lower than a printed book (no shipping, no storage, no returns, etc.)

Then the big 5 met with Apple and they set up a way to raise prices and if Amazon wanted to sell those books they would have to agree with the prices.

After that the big 5 decided to eliminate or seriously restrict ebook sales to libraries.

When Amazon was selling 9.99 books they were taking a loss, not the publishers.

Publishers cliam they are selling content not format and the price should be the same. I'd agree if the content in an ebook were the same, but it isn't. Typos from bad conversions abound.

[TeaEarleGreyHot]

My brother-in-law's cousin's stepdaughter told me that the factory workers where these publisher's ebooks are assembled overseas are suffering from nonrepetitive strain injury, cirrhosis, asthma, emphysema, gout, and pre-diabetes. Furthermore, the workplace is kept at an inhumane 68 degrees F, and do not have adequate access to retail shopping malls. Why isn't the DOJ looking into these grievances?

[wilyliam]

TeaEarleGreyHot, on 11 April 2012 - 09:31 AM, said:

My brother-in-law's cousin's stepdaughter told me that the factory workers where these publisher's ebooks are assembled overseas are suffering from nonrepetitive strain injury, cirrhosis, asthma, emphysema, gout, and pre-diabetes. Furthermore, the workplace is kept at an inhumane 68 degrees F, and do not have adequate access to retail shopping malls. Why isn't the DOJ looking into these grievances?

Where is this magical place? It sounds exactly like ... America! (Except for the lack of access to malls ...)

[johndrake]

GeorgeKafantaris, on 11 April 2012 - 09:07 AM, said:

Apple and iPhone: Overrated, overpriced and overbearing.

Ooo, an Android fanboy!

[ckasper]

Go get 'em DOJ!

[Swift2]

Yes, authors of the world! Go for the lower prices! The wholesaler! Take a loss and then make it up in volume!

Seriously, this prosecution is unique and seems to have a unique idea of "price-fixing."

Amazon is portrayed as the friend, friend, friend of content, but they're the ones lowering the prices unilaterally. (Much like the music in the Apple Store. Amazon got their mp3s cheaper than Apple for a year or two because Jobs insisted on fixing the price at 99c for every track. So eventually, Jobs relented and allowed the labels to special-price and promote and all those things. Boom, all the labels cut DRM.

No lawsuits from the DoJ about that. No "price-fixing" prosecutions there. The record biz wanted to control its price, and that meant it would be cheaper, and free of copy restrictions, until Apple caved slightly. Amazon was effectively doing that. Bribes and threats. Bidness. But the labels got the higher price they wanted from Apple. And Amazon colluded in the secret strategy.

Amazon is among many other digital companies, most obviously the cable providers, who have to be aware of the conflict between publisher and wholesaler. Maybe those two roles should be performed by different players.

[John]

GK - I know why Australia is so concerned with the dwindling Bilbie population -they are being eaten by the expanding troll population.

[PhilippaPendrell]

It's high time someone jumped on the eBook price fixing. It's long been a bugbear of mine that eBooks are so expensive, and Apple's iBooks charges are ridiculous. Their pricing is on par with paper books. It's been obvious since 2007 that there was some serious price fixing going on.