US Justice Dept accuses Apple of eBook Price Fixing

[Graham]

xlate perhaps too terse

unveil full meaning

give chance to translate

[ApK]

Originally Posted by Graham

xlate perhaps too terse

unveil full meaning

give chance to translate

Was that a haiku?

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by forsooth

all this is hard for person from Eastern Europe to understand.

It shouldn't.
You ever hear the old soviet era russian quip?
"They pretend to pay us, we pretend to work."

Disgruntled low-level employees have lots of non-actionable ways to get back at unscrupulous employers, especially in the tech industry.
(And the list of documented actionable acts that have involved legal authorities is pretty long.)

[Graham]

Originally Posted by ApK

Was that a haiku?

Not intentionally, but if you read 'unveil' as un-vay-ell we've got one.

Graham

[forsooth]

Originally Posted by forsooth

all this is hard for person from Eastern Europe to understand.

great freedom though also great foolishness

my wife attempts to re-educate me in the new world a lot
my children laugh sometimes
my elders warn me a lot

most here are lucky
they can only remember freedom

I remember the old ways though I was small

then you would never attack your employer or country not if you were wise
watching, listening, even though I was small I learned this very well

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by forsooth

most here are lucky

In many, many ways, yes.
Most of us are painfully aware of it; we can afford long, winding discussions that are totally unrelated to survival.
Hopefully that ability will continue to spread, that creativity may bloom.
The human mind has great power when given free rein to express itself...

[frahse]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

In many, many ways, yes.
Most of us are painfully aware of it; we can afford long, winding discussions that are totally unrelated to survival.
Hopefully that ability will continue to spread, that creativity may bloom.
The human mind has great power when given free rein to express itself...

Yes. Indeed!

A half a world away for some of us.

And I could break into a song, but I don't want the thread moved to Behind the Green Door.

[fjtorres]

From Reuters:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...94M19A20130523

The judge is (unusual, in a trial like this) warning Apple they need to settle.

In an unusual move before a trial, a federal judge expressed a tentative view that the U.S. Justice Department will be able to show evidence that Apple Inc engaged in a conspiracy with publishers to increase e-book prices.

U.S. District Judge Denise Cote, who is set to oversee a trial on June 3, gave her view during a pretrial hearing on Thursday.

and,

"I believe that the government will be able to show at trial direct evidence that Apple knowingly participated in and facilitated a conspiracy to raise prices of e-books, and that the circumstantial evidence in this case, including the terms of the agreements, will confirm that," Cote said.

Translation: "Don't waste my time and taxpayer money fighting this. Settle it."

[rkw]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

From Reuters:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...94M19A20130523

The judge is (unusual, in a trial like this) warning Apple they need to settle.



and,



Translation: "Don't waste my time and taxpayer money fighting this. Settle it."

why should a corporate, with rights of an individual these days, be allowed to settle here when a person would be sent to G'Bay and hosed until their eyes crossed then came out the other side. Meaning a person would never be allowed to recover from something this egregious yet here is a Judge advising the BIG MONEY to pay their fine and move forward. How will that [settling] protect US citizens as well as compensate consumers harmed by the matter? But this is a MAJOR CRIME and the big money better not be allowed to get away again like the Enron et. al. big money.

Yeah Enron was hugely worse but the Apple thing is a better show of how this sort of thing as become standard daily business practices. Look at how goods are prices and sold today, with the advent of JIT (just in time purchasing) and mfg controlled shelf pricing combined with the now very legal anti-competitive MAP agreements. We have at least one generation who now thinks MSRP's are what items are worth because "The Company" would never take advantage of the fact MAP agreements prevent retailers from actively competing for sales by limitng if not downright preventing placing items in sale and then advertising the sale to the public via print, web, radio or TV...

Apple needs to be made an example of if for no other reason than they have trading on their marketing-wonk manufactured reputation to instill consumer confidence in the company affording them the opportunity to sell as competition suppressed prices. Yet the whole time, as so many have been saying for a couple-three decades now, they are anything but trustworthy. When was the last time there was true competition for Apple products in the marketplace? Ummm, well, never...it is their corporate pathology.

[rkw]

btw, did anyone notice that this past week Apple put a big chunk of the NYT BS list on sale for $4.99us? I got the email direct from iTunes...made me laugh, what a gaff to actually show how manipulated the pricing was.

[elcreative]

Good idea RKW... wreck the company so they can't recover, up the unemployment and shift even more business to other countries... and how does having a sale make a "gaff to show how manipulated the pricing was." So all sales show price manipulation and... what?

Love your worldview...

Personally, I'd rather Apple settled so the taxpayer doesn't enrich the lawyers even more and then lets move on, perhaps looking at a few others with dominant market positions...

[cfrizz]

Consumers if they so wish can make their displeasure very clear very quickly simply by no longer making Apple purchases.

This is the best most effective means of punishing a company, and more than one company has felt consumers wrath for screwing around and taking us for granted.

It doesn't impact me since I haven't nor do I intend to purchase any overpriced Apple product, and only shop at independent ebook stores for my books.

[Namekuseijin]

Originally Posted by ApK

Was that a haiku?

[calvin-c]

Originally Posted by elcreative

Good idea RKW... wreck the company so they can't recover, up the unemployment and shift even more business to other countries... and how does having a sale make a "gaff to show how manipulated the pricing was." So all sales show price manipulation and... what?

Love your worldview...

Personally, I'd rather Apple settled so the taxpayer doesn't enrich the lawyers even more and then lets move on, perhaps looking at a few others with dominant market positions...

Conviction, in a case like this, would more likely subject the company to oversight by the DOJ to insure they obey the law. If that 'wrecks' the company then I don't think it's a company that we want doing business in the US anyway. Settlement, OTOH, would likely mean the company would pay a monetary penalty & then continue with 'business as usual' to the detriment of its customers.

[frahse]

I don't think much will happen.

Apple is too big, too rich, too egoistical.

They have too many lawyers.