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Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg
Here's an excellent analysis of the lawsuit, presenting good arguments pro and con, some of which may actually be new to the thread:
How Cheap Should Books Be? |
From the article:
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antitrust law now favors a corporate hegemon like Amazon, over the interests of smaller, less powerful businesses, such as the publishers
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Um. "Smaller, less-powerful businesses?"
Y'know, I can believe Samhain Press is a small, not-very-powerful business. Wildside Press is small. Macmillan is not small. Penguin is not small. If 5 of the "big 6" publishers were being steamrollered by an upstart warehouse/e-order company, there's something wrong with their business models.
If publishers--manufacturers--are being hurt by a *store*, it shouldn't take a conspiracy between competitors to fix that. They had the option of just *not selling* to Amazon, and supporting Amazon's competition that way.
Whether or not antitrust law favors the hegemon--I can believe it does--that doesn't excuse collaborating to raise prices. If they wanted Amazon not to be the industry leader in ebook sales, all they had to do was seek out other marketplaces. They, after all, create what Amazon sells.
This is a case of "we want all the money Amazon brings us, but we don't want Amazon to have any leverage to use against us." Which, ahm. Well, it's kind of a one-or-the-other thing. You can't get truckloads of money from companies that are struggling to survive. And companies that are thriving, have leverage to swing around in multiple directions.