Slashdot Mirror
Judge Thinks Apple Will Lose E-Book Price-Fixing Case
Nerval's Lobster writes "Apple could face a difficult time winning its court case against the U.S. Department of Justice over e-book pricing, according to the federal judge overseeing the trial. 'I believe that the government will be able to show at trial direct evidence that Apple knowingly participated in and facilitated a conspiracy to raise prices of e-books,' U.S. District Judge Denise Cote said during a May 23 pretrial hearing, according to Reuters, 'and that the circumstantial evidence in this case, including the terms of the agreements, will confirm that.' Apple's legal counsel is a bit perturbed over her comments. 'We strongly disagree with the court's preliminary statements about the case today,' Apple lawyer Orin Snyder wrote in a statement also reprinted by Reuters. The Justice Department has asserted that Apple, along with those publishers, conspired to raise retail e-book prices in tandem 'and eliminate price competition, substantially increasing prices paid by consumers.' Apple battles Amazon in the e-book space, with the latter company achieving great success over the past few years by driving down the price of e-books and Kindle e-readers; while Apple co-founder insisted in emails to News Corp executive James Murdoch (son of Rupert Murdoch), that Amazon's pricing was ultimately unsustainable, the online retailer shows no signs of flagging with regard to its publishing-industry clout."
E-book pricing is a sham.
Can't prejudice such as this get Apple's case thrown out?
In few short years (three, maybe four) they went from being innovative company creating groundbreaking products to being a pain in the ass. Now they represent the worst aspects of corporate America: from tax evasion to legal system abuses to price fixing to screwing up their own customers on every possible occasion. With their innovation pace fading and their products increasingly lagging behind competitors. Maybe it's time to fire their management and hire some less parasitic, more innovative CEO ?
Yes, that is one of the purposes of a pretrial hearing. The judge has to determine whether or not the case should proceed to a trial or be dismissed. In order for there to be a trial, the Judge has to determine if the party bringing the lawsuit (the federal government in this case) has enough evidence to warrant a trial. The Judge also has to make a preliminary judgement about how likely the party bringing the lawsuit will win. This is needed in order to determine whether any preliminary injunctions should be issued prior to the trial (i.e. an injunction that takes place and stays in force until the trial is completed or another hearing reverses the injunction).
no, but you still have the editing costs and Amazon takes 20% or 30% commission for selling the book. along with the whispernet fees for any customers who download over 3g.
the printing/shipping costs were always around 10%. the selling costs are still there with amazon/apple taking the commission instead of B&N
I can't donate e-books, so for me to break even the price needs to be no more than 70% of the paperback face value.
"My opinions are my own, and I've got *lots* of them!"
And the real answer is "yes". In certain circumstances, they are even required to (e.g., the standard for granting preliminary injunctions, often sought before trial, is explicitly call for a determination of the likelihood of success on the merits.)
Probably because from Apple's perspective, all Apple did was let the publishers set their own book prices.
If you go open a physical book and look at the inside cover you will see something like the following: MSRP $19.99
MSRP stands for Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price. It is a suggested price. The seller can sell below this. (stores will slap a 30% off sticker on the book) Legally, suggesting a price is different than enforcing a price with a contract. They don't set prices on physical books because there is case law saying that is illegal. Basically this issue has already been through the courts.
Amazon has that exact sort of deal if you want to list items with them: The item's price at Amazon must be the lowest. Your price at other places can match it, but not be any lower. (Doesn't make Apple doing it any better or worse, of course. They're both being douchebags.)
But, hey, claiming they're evading taxes sounds better, doesn't it. /eyeroll
Maybe in your universe not in mine. In my mind I have more respect for real criminals not massive corporations who can legally buy off the political system, so they can essentially pay no tax...When I work long hours and am heavily taxed and cannot afford an accountant to hide my money in a foreign company...or throw a politician a few Million in return for Billions.
Publishers are the ones tying books to devices, with DRM. No-one is forced to put DRM on their Kindle books, it's a publisher's option.
Then, after those publishers have tied readers to their Kindle by putting DRM on their books, they complain that other stores can't compete with Amazon because all the readers have Kindles.
Capitalism is about profit. Specifically, maximizing it.
That is a nice Straw man you got there. Setting your prices as high as possible is not the same as setting your prices to maximize profit. Lowering prices can lead to more sales resulting in more profit. Free Market Capitalism is about letting supply and demand dictate where the price will be. Apple has attempted to abuse contract law to have the government enforce a price control. Anti Trust laws are about enforcing Free Market Capitalism. They are there prevent control of supply and to prevent price manipulation. What Apple is pushing is Crony Capitalism.
Easy. Would you like all the cell phone carriers to fix the price (removing competition) for service and phones? How about the big farms with the price of soybeans or corn? How about clothing manufacturers? Car manufacturers? Think of a world with zero competition between companies on price...and you will realize why price fixing is a bad idea.
When ebooks first became available I thought that this was a great opportunity to have access to more of them for a cheaper price. After all, the costs of printing and distributing them is reduced to practically zero. Granted, there are still editing and some other minor costs, but very little in the scheme of things. But before I actually purchased an ebook reader I watched the costs of the books for a while. Quickly it became clear that a dead tree version was almost always cheaper than the ebook version and once I had it, nobody could take it away on a whim or technicality. Suffice it to say that I never bought an ebook or a reader, but I still buy, read and enjoy plenty of great books.
Screw you, you greedy bastards.
http://dvagency.com/agents/
Chuck Verrill is his Literary Agent's name and that's his firm. Contact information is on the site. You can submit your recommendations to Stephen King through his agent.
Why? I was really bored and wanted to see how complicated it was to find that information. It wasn't all that difficult really. I'd say that it took maybe five minutes to find and confirm it through multiple sources (in case you're curious). I figured, as well, that if I was going to go through the effort that I should probably share it with you seeing as you indicated a willingness to give your suggestions to him. He's a nice enough fellow, King - not his agent (I've never met his agent), and genuinely easy to talk to. We've met a half dozen times or so and he frequented a writer's group that I used to attend at the Bangor Public Library.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."