LakeLoon:
Thanks for the direct link to the provision itself. I have not read it completely before and was dependent on people such as WSJ to offer insight on the implications.
I agree that the relationship between the publishers and retailers now feels more like the relationship seems more like a consignor-consignee arrangement. If there was not that US Supreme Court decision in 2007 this could never have happened, or at least it would have been a lot harder to justify in the eyes of the Feds.
I have been waiting on the fallout from the Maryland law to start happening where it gets to the courts at some point in time. I haven't read anything where Maryland has taking a company to court over violating the law. But if it can be upheld and other states also adopt similar laws it might be possible to close one of the loopholes in the, I think I understand it from your explanation, vertical agreements like the books. Also, btw, camera makers such as Hoya/Pentax (Hoya has now owned Pentax for about 4-years now) require this same sort of agreement which has all but stifled competition between the retailers resulting in huge price jumps. We are talking around 30%-40% as a rule but in several instances it was as much as 50%-60% within the past 2-years. It's the same situation only not with multiple manufacturers acting in concert...
I am hoping it's the acting simultaneously in concert which eventually will be the undoing of the situation in the book world. I have understood this, for lack of a better word, collusion to still be a big no-no for corporations. But I'm no expert just a layperson trying to wade through it all out of curiosity if nothing else...it's fun!
As for the camera world, I don't see how, given the change in the law in 2007, that it will happen in a Federal Level. But thankfully we still have some semblance of states rights and states, as you mention, go to a level above the Federal Law.
But one thing for sure, there is no way anyone is going to get the Supreme Court to overturn a ruling they made only 3-years back that just does not happen. And we won't get into the fact the Supreme Court should not be ruling on this sort of thing but those days are long go as well...
hehehehe... So anything tried, if it ever even happens, has to approach the matter from a different direction, if at all. Still, as you point out it's that pesky new relationship between the publishers and retailers. No matter it will be years before anything happens, even in Maryland. I have a sense with money the way it is right now, a state would be reluctant to dedicate the resources to something like this right now even if it has far reaching repercussions beyond the single industry of books.
Still that acting in concert is like a huge red flag and just looks too juicy for some prosecutor to not want a crack at this one...time will tell I suppose.
Thanks a lot for the nice explanation of the not so subtle difference in the new relationship between publishers and booksellers and link!! Just a complicated world...and then ya die...
