Slashdot Mirror
Apple Holds Firm As Publishers Settle With DoJ Over e-Book Pricing
Nerval's Lobster writes "The U.S. Department of Justice has just settled with book publisher Macmillan in an ongoing case over the price of e-books, bringing its number of settlements with big-name publishers up to five. Justice claims that those five publishers, along with Apple, agreed to 'raise retail e-book prices and eliminate price competition, substantially increasing prices paid by consumers.' Apple competes fiercely in the digital-media space against Amazon, which often discounts the prices of Kindle e-books as a competitive gambit; although all five publishers earn significant revenues from sales of Kindle e-books, Amazon's massive popularity among book-buyers — coupled with the slow decline of bricks-and-mortar bookstores — gives it significant leverage when it comes to lowering those e-book prices as it sees fit. But Justice and Apple seem determined to keep their court date later this year."
No they didn't. I repeat, the ebook business model is exactly the same as the app store model. It's not something new and devious devised by a conspiracy.
Bookstores went out of buisness under Apples agency model not under Amazons. Agency model went into effect in 2010 Borders went out of buisness in 2011.