This guy is misinformed. While he might have his facts correct he is omitting the important fact, their
intent and the history of how this decision was made to go to an Agency Model.
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But here's the irony of the agency model: It wasn't about making more money in the short term, even though e-book prices went up. Publishers raised prices and made less money per e-book copy sold.
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The underline is my emphases. He is right in his statement, but he also fails to explain why. Those of us who have been reading eBooks before the Agency model know the answer. It was to prevent eBook sellers from dropping the price of ebooks which would in turn condition the consumer expectation that eBooks should be cheaper than pBooks. At the time the eBooks sales where far smaller than paper books so they where more than willing to take a loss on eBook sales (back then eBooks where 1%-5% of book sales) to set the standard that eBooks should cost as much or more than pBooks. Now that eBooks sales are soaring, consumers are accustomed to the high prices, and DOJ is suing these sellers for price fixing. They are going back to the retail model so they can continue to make their profit. But now they will make much more because production cost for eBooks are next to $0.
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