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No, it's not price fixing.
• The publishers are not collaborating with one another to keep a lock on the industry. As evidenced, at least in part, by some larger publishers and numerous medium and small publishers not adopting the agency model.
• There is still plenty of competition going on.
• At least two major outlets asked for this type of pricing (Apple, Google).
• There's no outcry over software writers and publishers directly setting prices (e.g. Android Market, Apple's App Store)
• People were perfectly happy with authors setting prices for self-publishing (Smashwords, Amazon's DTP etc) or with Amazon demanding not to be undersold on DTP titles.
• People were perfectly happy when Apple "fixed prices" on digital music downloads at $1 per song.
• Walmart routinely demands that vendors hit specific price targets, which are then applied nationally in the largest company in the US. Isn't that also "price fixing?"
• Amazon has bullied the publishers for years, and got a taste of their own medicine. Characterizing them as a poor little victim of the big evil publishers is laughable.
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