Total up to 31 plaintiffs:
New details revealed, Apple's role clarified, and names named; Jobs personally implicated, among others.
http://paidcontent.org/2012/05/14/e-...n-new-details/
Previously-redacted details include:
Quote:
In late January 2010, Steve Jobs became directly involved in the agency pricing negotiations “after Eddy Cue could not secure one of the Conspiring Publisher’s commitment directly from an executive.” Jobs “wrote to an executive at the parent company, in part”:
As I see it, [Conspiring Publisher] has the following choices:
1. Throw in with Apple and see if we can all make a go of this to create a real mainstream ebooks market at $12.99 and $14.99.
2. Keep going with Amazon at $9.99. You will make a bit more money in the short term, but in the medium term Amazon will tell you they will be paying you 70% of $9.99. They have shareholders too.
3. Hold back your books from Amazon. Without a way for customers to buy your ebooks, they will steal them. This will be the start of piracy and once started, there will be no stopping it. Trust me, I’ve seen this happen with my own eyes.
Maybe I’m missing something, but I don’t see any other alternatives. Do you?
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Quote:
Among the content previously redacted and now public:
–Macmillan CEO John Sargent attempted to negotiate with Apple’s Eddy Cue on a way to make agency pricing less painful for publishers (publishers actually make more money under the wholesale model, where they are paid based on a book’s retail list price, than from the agency model). On January 11, 2010, Sargent wrote to Apple in an e-mail, “Am thinking a possible way to ease the financial pain for the publishers and authors of moving to the agency model. Could you take a reduced cut on hardcover first releases (where we are presently making 14.00 in revenue and would make 9.00 under your assumptions)?” Apple did not agree to take less than its customary 30 percent cut.
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Barnes and Noble was used to strong-arm Random House:
Quote:
Once five publishers and Apple had enacted agency pricing, the complaint says the five publishers “worked together to force” Random House to adopt it as well. On March 4, 2010, in an exchange also identified in the DOJ’s filing, Penguin CEO David Shanks sent Barnes & Noble’s then-CEO Steve Riggio an e-mail reading in part, “Random House has chosen to stay on their current model and will allow retailers to sell at whatever price they wish…I would hope that [Barnes & Noble] would be equally brutal to Publishers who have thrown in with your competition with obvious disdain for your welfare…I hope you make Random House hurt like Amazon is doing to people who are looking out for the overall welfare of the publishing industry.”
The state complaint additionally says that Shanks was trying to get Barnes & Noble to “stop any promotion or advertising of Random House titles,” and when Barnes & Noble continued to do so, “Shanks went back to Barnes & Noble again. Following this contact, Barnes & Noble’s management decided not to feature Random House in any future advertising.”
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Looking forward to more details as the cases go to court.