The Authors Guild just released a statement about ebook royalties, in which they assert that 25% of net is worse for authors than 15% of list. (Coincidental timing, as far as I can tell; they made no reference to this announcement by Sargent.) I don't agree with them, but I mention it to point out that everyone's still arguing about all this.
I'll say to both parties that I wish they'd stop babbling about 15% royalties as though that's what most authors get. Most hardcover contracts pay 10% royalties, escalating toward 15% after x-thousands of copies are sold (e.g., 10,000 copies). In fact, many books never sell in such numbers, and thus many authors are getting 10% of cover price, not 15%. By my calculations, ebook royalties based on 25% of the net should be an improvement.
As for the reparation for the Amazon Event, I doubt that it was motivated by a lawsuit. Probably motivated by public relations. I applaud them for it, even though I don't expect to get more than pennies. (What I got killed on was sales of a new paperback, and they're only making reparations for estimated losses of Kindlebook sales.)
EDIT: Here's the link to the Authors Guild statement:
http://authorsguild.org/advocacy/art...h-the-big.html