Quote:
Originally Posted by Elfwreck
A consortium (1) has to have a common goal other than "make everyone pay more for our services" and (2) has to be created in advance of any group activities.
Book publishers could presumably make a consortium to coordinate editorial resources, allow hardcovers to be published by one imprint and paperbacks by another, arrange translated books without each publisher having to hire translators for the same languages, and so on. They can't make a consortium for the sole purpose of "let's set all our standard prices 25% higher than the market wants to deal with."
And even if they could... they'd need to announce the existence of a consortium before they could make group contract agreements.
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Right on all counts.
They could also create a joint venture to facilitate global online sales, distribution the appropriate revenue to the proper rights holders.
Or, they could create a joint venture to distribute their content for them.
The music studios tried that last decade. Didn't work because the terms of use and prices were ridiculous.
Several TV studios (FOX, ABC, NBC/Universal) currently own chunks of Hulu and it seems to be working nicely.
You don't need to break the law to team up; you just need to folllow well-established rules.