[brecklundin]

I basically think the Price-Fix 5 are actually better called the Price-Fix 6. I believe they did the back room deal with each other to all say it was Apple who came to them with the same agreement. And by agreeing to the terms then it forced the cartel...errrr....publishers to honor the terms of their "independent" decisions to make the deal with Apple in terms of nobody pays a lower price than Apple. That part of the agreement is what makes no sense and is suspicious.

I think this time Jobs' true malevolence will come out...he colluded with the Price-Fix 5 to form the Price-Fix 6 with Apple as the excuse for it all. But it's so transparent it's not funny because WHY would every publisher agree to the same agreement with Apple in the face of their biggest reseller, Amazon. The is a blatant flaunting of existing anti-trust, consumer protection or collusion.

No matter how big a supporter of Apple and Jobs, he was without a doubt the puppet master here because this was the ONLY way he could break into the ebook market. He might even expect the deal to fail and is using it as a way to impede companies like Amazon, B&H as well as other resellers. It's not the first time Apple used this sort of tactic, only last time, they used the Justice Department to do their dirty work against Microsoft. And that was so obviously an attempt to bog down their competitor in legal issues that it would either give in or lose, worst case it was an attempt to make the competition look bad.

It's always wheels-within-wheels...this has nothing to do with the profits for the publishers at all, even if they think it does because the drank they Jobs Kool-Aid...he could care less about them. I think Jobs sold them on the illusion that by signing the agreement with Apple, even though it was the same with all of them, it gives the publishers involved and "out". It's a veil made of rice paper...

I could be wrong, and likely am, but based on how it all has shaken out, this sure sounds plausible to me.