DOJ suing Apple over ebooks.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Graham

The pdf is, unfortunately, a scanned image.*

EDIT: Ah, the version in the later link seems to have selectable text, so that would be easier than the BBC's linked version.

* How do I strike things out?

Graham

You had it almost correct. You just needed to use [] instead of <>.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Kali Yuga

I'd also be careful what you wish for. If agency pricing is killed, publishers may go back to windowing, e.g. delaying ebook releases by 3-6 months after the hardcover release, in order to protect hardcover margins.

I believe this is very possible.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I'm hoping that once this lawsuit is over that Fictionwise can go back to the model that had before the agency model with all the agency publisher's eBooks back for sale. That was a very successful model that worked well with customers.

There is no reason why Fictionwise can't bring back their loyalty program.
Or why B&N can't create one.
Or the Book Clubs *finally* get into ebooks...
The Price Fix Scam has stiffled competition, closed the market to newcomers, and deprived us of alternatives to the walled garden business model. May the court drive a stake through its heart.

Even more to your liking,I suspect sir, with price competition back on the table, walled gardens lose a bit of their appeal so we might see other ebookstores getting into the game and ADEPT might actually become relevant beyond Sony fans.

Today's biggest winner might just be Adobe.
(Silver linings are where you find them, right?)

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I believe this is very possible.

I say, let them.
There's lots of ways for the BPHs to commit market share suicide, besides price fixing; let them explore the others, too.

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by joehunt

The facts brought out in the complaint makes me support Amazon even more than I have in the past.

A complaint contains allegations. (That is why it starts "Plaintiff alleges")
It is up to the judge to decide whether they are facts.

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

There is no reason why Fictionwise can't bring back their loyalty program.
Or why B&N can't create one.
Or the Book Clubs *finally* get into ebooks.
Agency has stiffled competition and deprived us of alternatives to the walled garden business model.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but all those things existed before the Agency model came in, and Amazon's 'walled garden' had an even larger market share than it does now?

Even more to your liking,I suspect sir, with price competition back on the table, walled gardens lose a bit of their appeal so we might see other ebookstores getting into the game ...

With price competition back on the table, weak players will be driven out by those with more money and/or efficient businesses. Which would be Apple and Amazon. Certainly isn't B&N, is it?

... and ADEPT might actually become relevant beyond Sony fans. Today's biggest winner might just be Adobe.
(Silver linings are where you find them, right?)

Who offer absolutely nothing other than leeching a small amount off every sale to provide DRM 'services' that almost everyone says they hate?
That is a good thing?

[JoHunt]

Originally Posted by murraypaul

A complaint contains allegations. (That is why it starts "Plaintiff alleges")
It is up to the judge to decide whether they are facts.

Oops I work in a law firm and of course know this only too well ...

[ProfCrash]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I'm hoping that once this lawsuit is over that Fictionwise can go back to the model that had before the agency model with all the agency publisher's eBooks back for sale. That was a very successful model that worked well with customers.

Yup. It would be nice to see the independent e-bookstores be able to provide more books for users. It could be part of the solution for balancing Amazon. Not the entire solution but a step in the right direction.

Do people really believe that BN would not have matched Amazon's discounts? I can't say that I was checking BN website at the time, I had no good reason to, but BN had already established a policy of discounts and lowering prices for paperbooks, why wouldn't we think they would do the same with e-books?

As long as BN was matching Amazon's prices, even if not forced to by the Publishers, the Nook probably would have gained the same foothold it has gained today. Unless the argument is that BN was in such lousey financial position it could not match Amazon.

As for Apple, Jobs was late to the game because he did not believe people read enough to develop a dedicated e-reader. Once the IPad was going to be released, he was willing to look into an e-book store. He didn't like what he saw and, hey, we have some interesting e-mail traffic to get caught up on. IBooks did not take off because people could use Apps to read books from Amazon and BN. There was no reason to by from IBooks. And lets face it, Apple has done little to promote IBooks. It is not like they were out in front, like ITunes was. They missed the boat and decided that they did not like someone else playing the role of Apple in the e-bookmarket. The problem is it looks like they got caught.

I would also point out that Amazon established its price point long before BN, Kobo, or Apple entered the market. So Amazon's price was not established to take out the competition. Amazon's price point was established to entice people to by their wildly expensive new e-reader. The K1 was selling for $400. How do you convince people to buy one? Tell them that they will save a ton of money by buying e-books priced at $9.99 as opposed to the price they would pay for hardbacks. That price is low enough to get people who love to read to look at the device more seriously, calculate the amount they would save, and go "Hey, maybe I can save enough to afford this."

I remember people discussing how they could save enough with a NY Times subscription on Kindle to afford a K1. That was why Amazon was doing what it was doing. Create a reason for people to buy a new device. Now that the Kindle is established and doing well, we could see a slightly different tactic from Amazon. They might not be willing to lose money on e-books the way they were 5 years ago.

[ProfCrash]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but all those things existed before the Agency model came in, and Amazon's 'walled garden' had an even larger market share than it does now?

The e-reader players in 2007, when the Kindle was introduced, were Amazon and Sony and the smaller e-readers. The ones without book stores. Sony's bookstore was, well, a joke. Amazon's bookstore was pretty small. They used to update the number of books sold on a weekly basis. It was only in the 100,000 area when I got my K1. So yes, Amazon had its garden but people were shopping at the independent stores as well as Amazon and Sony at the time. I know a decent number of people lost e-books when the Agency Model went into effect because they had not downloaded them and the independent stores could no longer offer them.

[JonathanH]

As promised, I've converted the complaint to ebook format, and attached MOBI (for Kindle) and EPUB (for everything else) versions to this post. Makes for good lunchtime reading!

This was a very quick conversion with a bare minimum of sanity-checking in Sigil, so please post if you find any typos or formatting problems. My formatting decisions so far:

• I moved all the attachments to the end of the document.
• I removed "United States v. Apple, Inc. et al" from the attachment headers.
• I kept a manually numbered list rather than trying to use an ordered one.
• I replaced underlined text with bolded text.
• I replaced non-breaking em-dashes with en-dashes surrounded by spaces (in the MOBI only)
• Cover is cheesy but looks suitably law-school-ish
• Authorship is credited to United States Department of Justice rather than to e.g. the lead attorney.

Most interesting finding so far: the first set of historical steps goes A, B, D. I wonder if this is a simple mistake, or was there a step C that they took out at some point?

Edit: reverted to em-dashes in the EPUB.

[DiapDealer]

I replaced non-breaking em-dashes with en-dashes surrounded by spaces.

I refuse to play in your walled endashes-surrounded-by-spaces garden. I'm taking my vastly superior, non-breaking emdashes and going home.

Spoiler:

Sarcasm made even funnier by JSWolf's later seriousness.

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

The e-reader players in 2007, when the Kindle was introduced...

But the Agency model wasn't introduced until April 2010, so I'm not sure what the relevance is?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by JonathanH

I replaced non-breaking em-dashes with en-dashes surrounded by spaces.

They are breaking em dashes. It's only Mobipocket that botches this. ePub handles em dashes just fine. So can you please fix the grammatically incorrect en dashes back to em dashes without the spaces?

[Kali Yuga]

Originally Posted by murraypaul

A complaint contains allegations. (That is why it starts "Plaintiff alleges")
It is up to the judge to decide whether they are facts.

I concur, but this is the first time anyone has actually indicated anything resembling real evidence of collusion. That's definitely a change from merely assuming collusion based on timing.

That said, it's unclear that it was significant. Getting together at a restaurant and griping about Amazon and its prices might present a problem, but it's not necessarily the same thing as everyone agreeing to sell new ebooks at $12.99.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

I say, let them.
There's lots of ways for the BPHs to commit market share suicide, besides price fixing; let them explore the others, too.