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09-06-2012, 07:28 PM | #1 |
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Judge approves settlement. Says It's In The Public Interest To Stop Price Fixing
Hooray!
It is about time the evil doers are stopped. "Judge Quickly Approves Ebook Pricing Settlement; Says It's In The Public Interest To Stop Price Fixing" from the will-prices-drop? dept by Mike Masnick Thu, Sep 6th 2012 12:12pm techdirt.com "Judge Denise Cote wasted no time at all in approving the DOJ's settlement with three book publishers in its antitrust lawsuit over ebook pricing. While there had been some concerns about the settlement, the judge saw no problem with it at all, and very quickly issued an order approving the settlement (pdf) between the government and HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster and Hachette (the case against others, and Apple continues). The terms of the settlement are straightforward: They must terminate their Agency Agreements with Apple within seven days after entry of the proposed Final Judgment. They must terminate those contracts with e-book retailers that contain either a) a restriction on the e-book retailer’s ability to set the retail price of any e-book, or b) a “Price MFN,” as defined in the proposed Final Judgment, as soon as each contract permits starting thirty days after entry of the proposed Final Judgment. For at least two years, they may not agree to any new contract with an e-book retailer that restricts the retailer’s discretion over e-book pricing. For at least five years, they may not enter into an agreement with an e-book retailer that includes a Price MFN. " Read more . |
09-06-2012, 07:36 PM | #2 | ||
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I love this quote:
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09-06-2012, 07:41 PM | #3 |
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09-06-2012, 07:46 PM | #4 |
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yes! take that, you big fat fruit
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09-06-2012, 07:54 PM | #5 | |
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I also loved her reply to the endlessly repeated claim of "predatory pricing" by Amazon:
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Note: Amazon never lost money selling ebooks. Basket pricing at work, children. |
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09-06-2012, 08:35 PM | #6 |
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Well I was against the settlement because it was far too lenient on them. Hopefully the punishment for the non settlers will be severe.
At least the judge didn't buy the nonsense. I didn't think she would. |
09-06-2012, 08:58 PM | #7 |
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Score!
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09-06-2012, 10:03 PM | #8 |
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Oh yeah. New Kindles and Kobos and the promise of cheaper ebooks tobe read on them. A good day indeed
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09-06-2012, 10:10 PM | #9 |
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Good to know that antitrust law is well in the United States. I read the entire opinion, and there is nothing controversial. This was a price-fixing conspiracy, we all knew it, and everyone hates Amazon.
Apple has lots and lots of money, and they will drag this out as long as they can, but the evidence is pretty damning. The $9.99 problem. Jobs quote about paying a little bit more. It will be awhile before we see $9.99, but when it hits, we better all buy! |
09-06-2012, 10:43 PM | #10 | ||
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I don't hate Amazon, but I also don't think having most books be sold by them will help the average reader for long. Quote:
Simon & Schuster eBooks are still not in libraries. The settlement does nothing about that, or about declining advances, or any other situation that might impact the average world-wide reader. $9.99 loss-leader best-sellers in the world's richest large country, while not cheap enough for the average world-wide reader, are likely low-priced enough to undercut paper books, pushing them into being a luxury niche item like 33 1/3 RPM records are today. Without cheap used books to put downward pressure on prices, Amazon will be under pressure from Wall Street to raise book prices, however much Jeff Bezos loves low prices and high volume. And if I'm wrong about what happens when semi-cheap eBooks destroy the market for paper books, it will be because Amazon instead took the WalMart route of using market power to squeeze their suppliers, whose advances to authors are already pitifully low. I could ask how much Amazon publishing advances are, but then people might say I hate Amazon |
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09-06-2012, 11:04 PM | #11 | |
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What I hope we see mass market books (ones in the $6.99-$9.99 range) that have mass market paperback equivalents drop a bit like they used to be, or even a 4 for 3 type of deal like you see with paperbacks. |
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09-06-2012, 11:13 PM | #12 | |||||||
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And if most readers choose to buy their books from Amazon because of lower prices or better service or whatever - that is good for the consumer. Eliminating price competition is bad for the consumer. Quote:
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And I don't know what your point is about "world wide readers." E-book prices - book prices generally - in the US are much cheaper than those in Europe. Which is a big reason why the US has 80% of the e-book market. And while it's true that $9.99 is going to be a big expense for someone in a third world country, so is $24.99 for the same hardback. Quote:
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09-06-2012, 11:19 PM | #13 | |
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Looking at my then wishlist, I see prices $14.57, $15.12, $14.09. All of which went to $12.99 in Agency. As you wrote, we don't know how wholesale pricing will go in 30 days. |
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09-06-2012, 11:24 PM | #14 |
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09-06-2012, 11:55 PM | #15 |
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It was never about hardback pricing for me. It was having to pay more for ebooks, with fewer rights to them, than I can for paper.
I probably paid "full hard-back price" for 3 ebooks a year, for authors I just didn't want to wait a year for the "paperback" price. On the other hand, I'll be sad, sad, sad if publishers go back to their "we'll get around to dropping the ebook price to the paperback equivalent when we get around to it" windowing scheme as part of this... |
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