Escapist News Now: Apple Found Guilty In E-Book Conspiracy

Escapist News Now

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May 10, 2013
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Apple Found Guilty In E-Book Conspiracy

In a surprise ruling Apple has been found guilty of e-book price fixing.

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Griffolion

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Aug 18, 2009
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The ruling isn't surprising. Between the testimonies from basically every publisher involved and emails from Cook and Jobs pertaining to price fixing, the ruling was just a matter of time.
 

Ohlookit'sMatty

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Sep 11, 2008
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"We did nothing wrong!"
"We have all this evidence that says you did and you've been found guilty"
". . . I said we did nothing wrong, I didn't say we did nothing illegal. We wanted more money off people buying books, there is nothing wrong about that"


-M
 

Bara_no_Hime

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Sep 15, 2010
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Nothing legal wise to say about this. I just wanted to say this:

Ha! Ha ha. Ha.

Suck that Apple!

... yeah, that's pretty much it. Just wanted to laugh and gloat at Apple's expense.

And now I shall raise my glass to Amazon and cheap e-books.
 

Something Amyss

Aswyng and Amyss
Dec 3, 2008
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Okay, so here's the thing that rubs me: A monopoly generally fixes prices high. If the end result is you raise prices in competing with a monopoly, you're doing something wrong. This is one of the reasons Steam/Origin is such a mess. Any complaints one might have about Steam are at least partially nullified by the further anti-consumer practices of EA. Similarly, if your prices are going up 50%, it's probably not because you're out to break a monopoly.

Also, Amazon didn't have a monopoly. Sony at least had a robust market going on. I weighed the two heavily before I threw down with the Kindle, and I mostly did so because I can more imagine Sony going out of the ebook business than Amazon.

I want to be published, for the record. Those prices actually kind of scare me as both a consumer and a would-be creator.

Apple has created a market where a lot of ebooks I've looked for are more expensive than the print version.

Ohlookit said:
"We did nothing wrong!"
"We have all this evidence that says you did and you've been found guilty"
". . . I said we did nothing wrong, I didn't say we did nothing illegal. We wanted more money off people buying books, there is nothing wrong about that"


-M
Pretty much the standard. Especially if your fan base is one such that even that PR is unnecessary.

circularlogic88 said:
Looks like Apple...just got bit.
There's a serpent in the garden.
 

DoPo

"You're not cleared for that."
Jan 30, 2012
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Zachary Amaranth said:
Okay, so here's the thing that rubs me: A monopoly generally fixes prices high. If the end result is you raise prices in competing with a monopoly, you're doing something wrong. This is one of the reasons Steam/Origin is such a mess. Any complaints one might have about Steam are at least partially nullified by the further anti-consumer practices of EA. Similarly, if your prices are going up 50%, it's probably not because you're out to break a monopoly.
Yeah, that made me laugh "We want to break the monopoly...by artificially inflating prices." BRILLIANT!

I'll no go break the monopoly of the paperclip industry - I'll make my own device for holding paper together and I'll sell it for, like 100 bucks. That'll show them!
 

Something Amyss

Aswyng and Amyss
Dec 3, 2008
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DoPo said:
Yeah, that made me laugh "We want to break the monopoly...by artificially inflating prices." BRILLIANT!

I'll no go break the monopoly of the paperclip industry - I'll make my own device for holding paper together and I'll sell it for, like 100 bucks. That'll show them!
Then we can convince other manufacturers of paper clips to threaten to pull their products off Amazon if they don't meet our exorbitant price standards! I bet we could get Wal-Mart to back that. Box stores seem to be in trouble.

...The other thing that bugs me about this, which I should have mentioned, is that Amazon was reported to have shitty terms for independent authors. Apple, the consumer champions the claim to be, jumped in and...

....Offered worse terms with more restrictions. I'm told both have improved, but....
 

Madman123456

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Feb 11, 2011
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Here i was thinking the worst thing that could happen to a market is one company cornering it, erecting a quasi-monopoly.
Nope. Things get worse when you add Apple.
 

RaNDM G

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Apr 28, 2009
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Can't let you do that Steve Jobs.

If only he were alive, that joke would still be relevant.
 

ZZoMBiE13

Ate My Neighbors
Oct 10, 2007
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circularlogic88 said:
Looks like Apple...just got bit.
*puts on sunglasses*
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAH!

I know that's an old joke, but it just never gets boring to me. Sorry everyone.
 

thiosk

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Sep 18, 2008
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Zachary Amaranth" post="6.821582.19853412 said:
Okay, so here's the thing that rubs me: A monopoly generally fixes prices high. If the end result is you raise prices in competing with a monopoly, you're doing something wrong. This is one of the reasons Steam/Origin is such a mess. Any complaints one might have about Steam are at least partially nullified by the further anti-consumer practices of EA. Similarly, if your prices are going up 50%, it's probably not because you're out to break a monopoly.

Also, Amazon didn't have a monopoly. Sony at least had a robust market going on. I weighed the two heavily before I threw down with the Kindle, and I mostly did so because I can more imagine Sony going out of the ebook business than Amazon.

I want to be published, for the record. Those prices actually kind of scare me as both a consumer and a would-be creator.

Apple has created a market where a lot of ebooks I've looked for are more expensive than the print version.
/quote]

What irritates me about this situation is that it is an attempt to form a cartel, rather than break a monopoly. The publishers are well aware that they have a problem; ebooks have just about slayed the mega bookstores that had evicerated in turn the mom and pops. You smell blood in the water, you strike, but the moves to form this dinosaur squad under apple strikes me the wrong way and I don't like it.

I'm not sure what amazons self publication policies are, or the real potential for self publication in today's market. Intuition tells me that getting more per book is good, and feelings tell me publishers probably aren't great for the little guy, but I'm not in that business.
 

Amaror

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Apr 15, 2011
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Apple will fight amazons monopolistic grip?
Go ahead, apple!
Show it to those jerks at amazon, keeping prices low and affordable.
 

geizr

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Oct 9, 2008
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I'm not going to deny that I am a fanatic Apple user. Normally, I am quite defensive when I see people make negative statements and assertions against Apple (mostly because it almost always turns into reason to lob ad hominem attacks against those of us who use Apple products. If people just said they hate Apple and left it at that, I wouldn't care, but the frequent subsequent ad hominem attacks are what generally bother me the most); however, in this particular case, there is no defending Apple because they were, in my opinion, just clearly in the wrong (in fact, I was quite very much against their policy concerning e-books when I first learned of it). All they had to do was remove that one single clause in their policy that essentially dictated the price of e-books on other store-front, and this would not have been an issue.

I understand that Apple was trying to use the agency model to attract publishers; after all, without books, the iBookstore would have been immediately doomed to failure because it would have had little to nothing to sell. However, trying to force the entirety of the market to the same price such to artificially make the iBookstore appear more advantageous is a bad business practice, in my opinion, and Apple deserves whatever heat and flack it takes for this. There are likely better ways to compete with Amazon than collusion.

At the same time, I don't want to see the iBookstore disappear as a result of all this because it is a competitor to Amazon. The reasoning is the same that one would not want to see any company be the singularly most dominant, by an overwhelming percentage, service or product provider in any market/industry. Right now, Amazon has a decidedly dominant position in e-books, and for good reason; they have the largest selection, decent pricing, and reasonably easy purchasing. Apple would have to bring to the table something of additional value-added over Amazon in order to continue to compete, not by trying to strong-arm the market to its own will.
 

Sonic Doctor

Time Lord / Whack-A-Newbie!
Jan 9, 2010
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That's right Apple, keep wasting your money beating on dead legal horses. They really must be hurting from all the whiplash they've been getting from all the legal losses they've been enduring.

This case ruling isn't a surprise. It is about time somebody slapped them upside the head for trying to charge more for things that can normally be bought for less and are the same or sometimes even better, the insane prices of Apple's products show that.

Apple has show that it doesn't want to do the proper leg work to be a good and competing company. Just look at all the lawsuits they've been in recently that they started and then lost. When a competitor ends up making a better product than Apple's, instead of lowering their prices so people buy their products because they are cheaper or actually work to design something better, they just try to sue the company because "they stole our ideas, they copied us. Boo-hoo-hoo-hoo! Sniffle...". Luckily, in those cases the judges actually had some sense not to believe Apple's whining cry-baby bullshit bullying tactics.

Oh, and their PR quote about fighting against Amazon's monopolistic practices, that is priceless and stupid on their part. I would understand if you were working to make the prices cheaper than Amazon, because that is how you fight monopolies. Monopolies become that way because they want to charge more, Amazon is working in no way to charge more than it's competitors.
 

Lightknight

Mugwamp Supreme
Nov 26, 2008
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Apple lawyers are salaried. They probably don't see any reason not to fight what they've done and probably stand to lose a significantly larger amount of money from this.