[fjtorres]

Innocent until proven guilty does not apply in the world of antitrust and consumer protection nor does "running your business as you see fit".
As the article points out, price fixing for any reason used to be illegal until very recently. This was relaxed but not abolished so the PriceFixSix will have to defend their actions in court.

If it were just *one* publisher they might actually have a chance but the concerted actions of the cabal and the timing of the launch (synchronized to Apple's iBooks annoucement) suggest more than just the viability of a fading business model was in play.

Two notable points to keep an eye on:
1- the fight over venue (SF vs NY). The publishers want the case in NY courts, which is their home turf, rather than in Tech country SF. This may be a mistake; in today's populist america no single corporation is going to be afforded much leeway this side of SCOTUS, much less 6.

2- some of the class actions suits name Amazon and/or B&N as defendants. The intent obviously is to paint them as beneficiaries of the price fixing and (most importantly) drag them into the discovery process. If this carries over into the consolidated lawsuit the odds of finding directly incriminating data goes way up.

Of course, as is typical of these monster legal jousts, by the time the issue gets settled the outcome will be irrelevant.