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Originally Posted by Graham
If it turns out that their actions to enable collusion were illegal, then yes. Surely.
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No, because copyright is already a grant of a monopoly, and I support copyright. Trying to fine-time how publishers use their legal monopoly power, such as by saying they can only establish agency pricing with a wink and nod rather than explicit negotiation, is a waste of my tax dollars. This is especially true when they are using their monopoly power to prevent Amazon from gaining a different, and I think worse, kind of monopoly.
What Apple and friends are accused of doing, in the US, through illegal agreements, comes close to what they are required by law to do in France and Germany. This doesn't prove that France and Germany have good laws, but it does suggest that the issue is one of policy choice rather than right and wrong.
Quote:
Originally Posted by fjtorres
It is like trying to justify away a mugging; a crime is a crime, plain and simple.
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The Apple anti-trust case is civil, not criminal. And late next year, the publishers can again legally insist on agency pricing, just so long as they don't talk with other publishers about it.
If agency pricing is plain and simple the same as mugging, then it goes something like this: Actually mugging is fine in the US, so long as you don't meet with other muggers to discuss in advance. Whereas, in France and Germany, mugging is mandatory.