Apple Found Guilty of Ebook Price Fixing

Couchpotato

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The title says everything that needs to be said. This is the second strike agaisnt them as last year a judge ruled the Steve Job patent null and void.

1. http://www.theverge.com/2013/7/10/4510338/apple-found-guilty-of-ebook-price-fixing
2. http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...-e-book-price-conspiracy-in-the-judges-words/
3. http://www.todaysiphone.com/2012/12/u-s-patent-office-invalidates-steve-jobs-patent/
Cote described how Apple struck agreements with each of the five publisher defendants—who settled the case before trial—in order to push e-book rates higher than Amazon's. The negotiations happened in the seven weeks leading up to the January 27, 2010 announcement of the iPad.

Publishers told Apple they were unhappy with Amazon's standard price of $9.99. Although they received the full wholesale value of each book sold by Amazon, publishers didn't want $9.99 to catch on as the new default price for e-books, especially since this was so much lower than hardcovers. One strategy they used to keep revenues up was to delay the release of e-book versions of new books, but Apple told publishers it opposed this tactic in its then-forthcoming e-books store. HarperCollins wanted to flat-out charge as much as $18 or $20 for e-books, but Apple Senior VP Eddy Cue also made it clear that this was unrealistic. Apple was more amenable, however, when HarperCollins suggested using an "agency model" instead of the wholesale model used by Amazon.

With a wholesale model, Apple would purchase e-books and resell them at a price of its choosing, whereas with an agency model "a publisher sets the retail price and the retailer sells the e-book as its agent." Apple would become the agent selling the books, taking a 30 percent commission on each sale, just as it does with its App Store.

But Apple did not want to open an e-book store at all unless it was profitable, Cote wrote, and in order to make it work, the company had to deal with Amazon. Apple had even considered proposing a partnership with Amazon, "with iTunes acting as 'an e-book reseller exclusive to Amazon and Amazon becom[ing] an audio/video iTunes reseller exclusive to Apple,'" Cote wrote.

"Apple realized, however, that in handing over pricing decisions to the Publishers, it needed to restrain their desire to raise e-book prices sky high," Cote wrote. "It decided to require retail prices to be restrained by pricing tiers with caps. While Apple was willing to raise e-book prices by as much as 50 percent over Amazon’s $9.99, it did not want to be embarrassed by what it considered unrealistically high prices."
 
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Ebooks are too expensive, whether it's Amazon or Apple behind the wheels. It is ludicrous that most Kindle ebooks costs as much or more than the paperback. And, if you're a book club member, you can often get hardcover editions for the same price as well.

Authors need to self-publish (digitally) and get away from these greedy schmucks.
 
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Ebooks are too expensive, whether it's Amazon or Apple behind the wheels. It is ludicrous that most Kindle ebooks costs as much or more than the paperback. And, if you're a book club member, you can often get hardcover editions for the same price as well.

Authors need to self-publish and get away from these greedy schmucks.
I agree an electronic version should not cost as much as a printed book. The same problem plagues digital games also.

Recently I found a few self publish sites myself and books go from $1-$8 a book. That's were we should buy the eBooks we want.
 
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The interesting outcome is that essentially all power has been returned to Amazon ... which was what the publishers were trying to avoid ... :)
 
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The interesting outcome is that essentially all power has been returned to Amazon … which was what the publishers were trying to avoid … :)
True but at least the books from amazon are cheaper. Apple wanted to allow the publishers to charge double. Ebooks should never be sold for $15-20.

As I said before it's the same problem with all digital goods. Selling goods that save money for them, but never lowering the initial cost to buy. I have been hearing for years digital would be cheaper hasn't happened yet.
 
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Yesterday I was talking with someone over the quality of paper in books - it clearly feels different.

And that's something eBooks will never be able to deliver.

At one point, people might even not care at all - but printed books will never completely die out, imho.
 
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Yesterday I was talking with someone over the quality of paper in books - it clearly feels different.

And that's something eBooks will never be able to deliver.

At one point, people might even not care at all - but printed books will never completely die out, imho.
I have many books especially paperback and you can notice it. The printing paper is probably using cheap recycled paper. The books don't even last as long as they used to either.

Ebooks just help me buy or find old out of print books for allot less. They also allow me to read plenty of cheap self published books that will never be printed. Don't worry though I still love having printed books in my hand to read though.:)
 
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As a Kindle reader I found it quite annoying when the ebook prices went up, due to the Apple and publisher collusion, but I think this whole thing is wrong. If anything the gov should have thanked Apple for breaking up a monopoly. Sure, maybe they could have stepped in on behalf of consumers and sanity itself, to lower the prices, but not to defend Amazon's ability to devour the entire ebook market.
 
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And that's something eBooks will never be able to deliver.
And here I was thinking it was all about the content.

Don't get me wrong, we're all susceptible to the odd bit of emotional attachment to things in the form of nostalgia and/or elitism but that particular premise is so false I'd expect only people who were never into books in the first place fall for it.
 
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I was never an Apple fan as I was using a Palm smartphone before the iPhone ever came out. Instead of an app store, we called them programs and got them from various websites. Them saying they invented everything always irked me so I went Android when the N1 came out.
 
I thought I would hate ebooks myself but after 5 mins reading my first one I was hooked. They are better in every way imo. I even only read them on my phone which I love as I always have multiple books with me.
 
I don't need to lug around a dozen books when I travel. One or 2 is enough, so I don't see any advantages to ebooks. Also, printed books can be read more easily in sunlight, the opposite is true for ebooks. I like reading outside. :)
 
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True about the sunlight but it really only affects you if the screen is in direct sunlight. I'm sure it depends a bit on the device tho.

I've read an ebook multiple times in my hammock outside long after darkness.
 
Holy crap ... Is this thread from 1995?
 
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Holy crap … Is this thread from 1995?

You read your news on a website? Nothing can ever replace the texture and comfort of reading a good ol fashioned newspaper on my couch.

Drive a car? Nothing can ever replace the smell of fresh droppings of riding a horse.
 
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You read your news on a website? Nothing can ever replace the texture and comfort of reading a good ol fashioned newspaper on my couch.

Drive a car? Nothing can ever replace the smell of fresh droppings of riding a horse.

And I've been hearing noise about games delivered 'digitally' ... not sure what is up with that, nothing will replace the chatter of my floppy drives and the thrill of using a code wheel to authenticate my game!
 
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