Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
Many countries have adopted a position which disagrees with you. In many European countries, book prices are fixed on the grounds that protecting small independent booksellers benefits society as a whole, even if the individual consumer does pay more as a result. What's good for the consumer is not necessarily what's good for society.
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Harry, I'll respectfully point out that US antitrust law--which is what DOJ and the FTC are charged with enforcing--for the past hundred years has been about protecting consumers from corporations, not about protecting consumers from their own personal choices. Or protecting corporations from each other.
The government department charged with that kind of nannyism is much newer, dating back to last year:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_...tection_Bureau
So far they are having enough trouble finding their new offices on a regular basis that they have not yet taken a position on the matter of ebook pricing.
Also, US law does not offer privileged protection to arbitrary companies or industries. (except baseball.)
Everybody else is supposed to be subject to the equal protection clause of the constitution. Admittedly it is mostly honored by the frequency of violations but in this century Washington has apparently gotten serious (at last) about the equal protection clause.
In other words: do not expect consistency from the schizophrenic government.
Edit: and I do mean schizophrenic. Clinically.