“In a stern rebuke to Apple Inc.’s electronic-books sales strategy, a federal judge found the company colluded with five major U.S. publishers to artificially drive up the prices of e-books in the months ahead of its entering the market in 2010,” Chad Bray and Joe Palazzolo report for The Wall Street Journal.
“During the three-week civil antitrust trial, the Justice Department argued that Apple agreed with the publishers in January 2010 to allow them to set a higher price for best sellers and new releases in response to the publishers’ ‘Amazon problem’: a $9.99 price point for those books on Amazon.com Inc.,” Bray and Palazzolo report. “Prices for e-book best sellers rose to $12.99 and $14.99 as a result, the government claimed in its lawsuit.”
“‘The plaintiffs have shown that the publisher defendants conspired with each other to eliminate retail price competition in order to raise e-book prices, and that Apple played a central role in facilitating and executing that conspiracy,’ U.S. District Judge Denise Cote said in a 160-page ruling. ‘Without Apple’s orchestration of this conspiracy, it would not have succeeded as it did in the Spring of 2010,'” Bray and Palazzolo report. “Because Apple was found liable for violating U.S. antitrust laws, a hearing will now take place in a separate lawsuit brought by state attorneys general, who are seeking to recover damages on behalf of consumers who paid higher prices for e-books.”
Read more in the full article here.
Peter klafka reports for AllThingsD, “Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr says the company will appeal. Here’s his comment: ‘Apple did not conspire to fix ebook pricing and we will continue to fight against these false accusations. When we introduced the iBookstore in 2010, we gave customers more choice, injecting much needed innovation and competition into the market, breaking Amazon’s monopolistic grip on the publishing industry. We’ve done nothing wrong and we will appeal the judge’s decision.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Since the judge made her “decision” before the trial even began, we’d expect nothing less but for Apple to take this to the next level and, if necessary, beyond.
Related articles:
In U.S.A. v. Apple e-books case, witness Barnes & Noble VP Theresa Horner was everything Apple could hope for – June 19, 2013
The Apple e-books trial takes a detour into the absurd – June 18, 2013
Steve Jobs, Winnie the Pooh and the iBookstore Launch – June 17, 2013
Apple set to present its defense in e-book antitrust case – June 17, 2013
Steve Jobs was initially opposed to entering the e-book market – June 14, 2013
U.S.A. v. Apple: DOJ’s last best chance in e-book case has passed – June 14, 2013
Obama admin trying to throw the book at Apple; U.S. DOJ goes after an innovator whose market entry reduced prices – June 13, 2013
Apple’s Eddy Cue denies price-fixing allegations at U.S v. Apple e-books trial – June 13, 2013
Apple fires back at DOJ with email Steve Jobs actually sent – June 13, 2013
Is Steve Jobs’ unsent email a smoking gun in Apple e-book case? – June 12, 2013
Winds shift toward Apple in U.S. DOJ’s e-book trial – June 12, 2013
Day 5 of the Apple ebooks trial: Publishing execs testify; Rupert Murdoch’s role – June 11, 2013
U.S. v. Apple iBookstore case could go to the Supreme Court – June 5, 2013
Apple accuses DOJ of unfairly twisting Steve Jobs’ words in e-book case – June 4, 2013
U.S. DOJ prosecutors accuse Apple of driving up e-book prices – June 3, 2013
U.S. v. Apple goes to trial; DOJ claims e-book price-fixing conspiracy with Apple as ringmaster – June 3, 2013
U.S. DOJ takes Apple to trial alleging e-book price-fixing – June 2, 2013
In pretrial view, judge says leaning toward U.S. DOJ over Apple in e-books case – May 24, 2013
Penguin to pay $75 million in e-book settlement with US State Attorneys General – May 23, 2013
The hot mess that is Apple’s e-book legal fight with U.S. DOJ – May 16, 2013
Apple: Deals with publishers improved e-books competition – May 15, 2013
Apple tells U.S. DOJ of tough talks, not collusion, with publishers – May 15, 2013
EU ends e-book pricing antitrust probe into e-book pricing; accepts offer by Apple, four publishers – December 13, 2012
Apple, publishers offer EU e-book antitrust settlement – September 19, 2012
Judge rubber-stamps U.S. e-books settlement – September 6, 2012
Apple, four publishers offer e-books antitrust concessions, says source – August 31, 2012
Apple bashes Amazon, calls U.S. DOJ settlement proposal ‘fundamentally unfair, unlawful, and unprecedented’ – August 16, 2012
U.S. antitrust settlement with e-book publishers should be approved, feds say – August 4, 2012
U.S. Justice Department slams Apple, refuses to modify e-book settlement – July 23, 2012
U.S. senator Schumer: Myopic DOJ needs to drop Apple e-books suit – July 18, 2012
Apple’s U.S. e-books antitrust case set for 2013 trial – June 24, 2012
U.S. government complains, claims Apple trying to rush e-books antitrust case – June 21, 2012
Barnes & Noble blasts U.S. DOJ e-book settlement proposal – June 7, 2012
Apple: U.S. government’s e-book antitrust lawsuit ‘is fundamentally flawed as a matter of fact and law’ – May 24, 2012
Federal Judge rejects Apple and publishers’ attempt to dismiss civil case alleging e-book price-fixing – May 15, 2012
Court documents reveal Steve Jobs email pushing e-book agency model; 17 more states join class action suit – May 15, 2012
Apple vs. Amazon: Who’s really fixing eBook prices? – April 17, 2012
Apple: U.S. DOJ’s accusation of collusion against iBookstore is simply not true – April 12, 2012
Apple not likely to be a loser in legal fight over eBooks – April 12, 2012
16 U.S. states join DOJ’s eBook antitrust action against Apple, publishers – April 12, 2012
Australian gov’t considers suing Apple, five major publishers over eBook pricing – April 12, 2012
DOJ’s panties in a bunch over Apple and eBooks, but what about Amazon? – April 12, 2012
Antitrust experts: Apple likely to beat U.S. DOJ, win its eBook lawsuit – April 12, 2012
Why the market shrugged off the Apple antitrust suit – April 11, 2012
What’s wrong with the U.S. DOJ? – April 11, 2012
Macmillan CEO blasts U.S. DOJ; gov’t on verge of killing real competition for appearance of competition – April 11, 2012
U.S. DOJ hits Apple, major publishers with antitrust lawsuit, alleges collusion on eBook prices – April 11, 2012
U.S. DOJ may sue Apple over ebook price-fixing as early as today, sources say – April 11, 2012
Fscking courts. Let’s start a revolution. Are you reading this NSA?
Heh. This will just piss Apple off. Which is actually good for us. Having a very powerful company like Apple on the side of the people is…hmmm.
As for how to deal with Amazon (who may be whooping for joy at the moment, quite stupidly, i might add)…all Apple has to do is develop a subscription model payment to compete with the Amazon Prime streaming model.
Right now Amazon is competing with Netflix on subscription streaming, but imagine if Apple entered that market space with all those credit card accounts linked up to iTunes for $9.99 a month or so.
Retail revenge dish. Best served with whipped cream.
“Something In The Air” – Thunderclap Newman
So it’s OK for Amazon to sell ebooks below cost to secure its dominance of the ebook market. But it is not OK for Apple and the booksellers to use standard market-based pricing techniques where supply and demand rules. Total BS.
I made a few comments here about how I thought that Apple fought hard but lost, and could lose again based on the letter of the law. But now I’m conflicted.
It turns out that the judge Denise Cote also ruled on an Apple case in 1997, in which she ruled Apple violated federal antitrust by ending the Mac OS licensing program. Shouldn’t she have recused herself from the case?
Through the trial it was proven that Amazon used the same or even harsher tactics and “most favourable” clauses, and it had a monopoly, and yet the judge totally ignored that saying that now Apple is on the trial, not Amazon.
I suppose this judge and some DOJ staff will secure major positions in lobbying and legal firms that were financed by Amazon all those years. Apple spent literally order of magnitude less to
bribelobby DOJ and now is made to pay for that.This trial is a shame for USA’s legal system.
Total Injustice.
…in related news, OJ is still looking for the real murderer.
If the glove don’t fit…
“…I’ll still stab you in the tit.” – OJ
The blindfold apparently has fallen off Lady Justice.
Unfortunately, there are fools in all professions and at all levels.
The judge who rendered this decision is a fool. Consider my comment as a strong rebuke of her judgement.
Uh, huh, and who attends Bilderberg meetings? Jeff Bezos.
Eric Schmidt and Craig Mundie and Bill Gates of MS have also been regular attendees of Bilderberg the past few years.
an astute observation, Arnie.
Thanks.
Not one iota of evidence to support this conclusion.
Big money jas decided that since Apple is independently destroying all parasitic business models and refusing to share it’s earned fortune and leadership, it’s time to unite and knock it off it’s perch.
Apple’s loyal fanfare and support from it’s unwavering fans will not buckle or die.
I concur completely with your point, breeze!
However . . .
it’s = IT IS
You’re so very facile with the English language, this error should not remain in your arsenal of communication.
There is no place for grammar police on the internets!!!
… and why not?
There’s no place for monkies who know how to type either. 😀
No artificial intelligence in autocorrect
I think I will boycott Amazon. I don’t buy their books anyway, but they’re basically running away with this Monopoly on so many fronts.
It’s hard but worth a harder try. But I think this is a very very unfair judgement.
Apple still needs to work up harder on its iBooks store… I’ll try to close my wallet against Amazon as long as I can from now on.
Buy local from small business to support your community.
use Rakuten ot BBY. BBY will match online prices. Once when they couldn’t match they gave me a “discount to make up most of the difference and I was able to pick up the order at the local store.
It was not a conspiracy, it was right out in the open. Steve explained his reasons for saving the publishing industry and why higher prices were reasonable. A lot of ppl feel it’s just electronic bits so why pay more? That’s the real issue — what really are the costs of publishing electronically. Also remember discussions that the prices would shake down soon after epublishing became more established. Never saw it as collusion or conspiracy but wrangling to set a new standard so epublishing could actually happen. By now it is popular and a cost analysis would be interesting. Apple also provides a way for ppl to self-publish which is a revolutionary boon.
Screw the verdict. Spoiled my morning. How the fuuk can this be?
Do Apple’s lawyers totally suck, or are the courts out of control?
Judging Apple legal over the entire scope of the company’s history leads to only one conclusion: They do indeed suck.
It really has little to do with Apples lawyers, the real issue here is lobbying. For a very long time Apple spent very little on lobbying and thus did not funnel much money to washington and politicians. What we are seeing now is nothing short of a shakedown, if Apple had been giving more money to lobbyist and thus politicians this lawsuit would never have happend in the first place. After all the judge made the verdict known almost before the trial started.
correcto mundo.
I radically disagree.
Yes, lobbying and political issues are in play here.
However, Apple’s legal team is bordering on incompetent.
The VERY FIRST THING Apple’s legal team should have attacked is the whole, totally improper, use by everyone — including the judge, the prosecutors and the press — of the label “Most Favored Nation” clause. It was NOT a MFN clause. It was, and is, a “Best Customer” clause.
A MFN clause — if it had been used, which it was not — would have been very damning. The whole concept of a single company demanding a MFN clause smacks of Apple requiring all the publisher give Apple special status.
A BC clause is just the opposite — from a legal point of view. A BC clause is reactive. It only requires action if others (not Apple) does something.
The fact that Apple’s legal team wouldn’t (or maybe couldn’t — maybe they’re not bright enough to know or articulate the difference!) address this in any filing or during the trial just shows how incompetent Apple’s legal team really is.
Not only should Apple fire the entire legal team (including in house lawyers), they should demand all their fees back due to gross incompetence of all lawyers involved.
Says the guy who hasn’t even read the 160 decision report.
Fanboy.
troll.
Says the guy who hasn’t read the submitted documents in which it is most clearly a BC clause and NOT a MFN clause.
Do YOU even know the difference?
Do you even know that the wording of a MFN clause requires the parties to do something independent of what any other parties do? Do you even know that a BC clause is only invoked if *other* parties get better pricing/terms?
Shadowself:
The guy who hasn’t read the 160 page decision report. The redneck who oversimplifies EVERYTHING. The hopeless fanboy. There are number of reasons why the judgement was what it was.
Read the report and shut the fuck up.
Simon & Schuster’s Carol Reidy had records of Apple saying it “cannot tolerate a market where the product is sold significantly more cheaply elsewhere.” And some of the most damning statements, Cote said, came all the way from the top of Apple.
In one statement, Jobs told James Murdoch that Amazon’s $9.99 sales were “eroding the value perception” of its products, and that Apple would be trying higher price points. This was confirmed at launch. “Jobs’s purchase of an e-book for $14.99 at the Launch, and his explanation to a reporter that day that Amazon’s $9.99 price for the same book would be irrelevant because soon all prices will “be the same” is further evidence that Apple understood and intended that Amazon’s ability to set retail prices would soon be eliminated.”
You do realize that it is illegal to sell at a loss in order to kill off the opposition.
This has NOTHING to do with Amazon. Stop deflecting the issue away from Apple. This is about Apple and its conspiracy to inflate prices with industry. And about collusion. If Apple was so pure and good they would have sued Amazon or got the DOJ to sue or whatever to break this “illegal” selling practice you charge Amazon with.
But it’s not clear at all that Amazon did anything illegal. All they did was dominate a market with competitive prices. In fact, you’re such a fucking idiot that you don’t even know that Amazon doesn’t LOSE ANY MONEY on a publisher’s catalogue. There’s clauses in there about that. They *may” sell a book at a loss, but overall they make money and are contractually bound to not lose money in aggregate over a publisher’s catalogue.
And selling loss leaders isn’t illegal at all. Most retailers do it.
And I’ve never heard or seen Amazon lose 1 dime on the sale of an eBook. That’s just the media and consumer perception. And as long as you think they lose money, the more you think you’re getting a better deal and the more it works for Amazon.
Idiots like you should be illegal, because you’ll believe any bullshit and convince yourself of something that simply isn’t true.
Come on…Apple’s lawyers weren’t too bad. The problem is that the whole thing was rigged from the beginning. The judge was leaning towards the government before the trial….
Rigged.
What a bunch of malarkey. Reading the case reports, it is obvious that Apple’s lawyers did an excellent job rebuking the DOJ’s case, to the extent that the judge even commented that Apple may have changed her mind.
This is the problem with lawsuits and its also why so many settle — you never know how the judge/jury is going to rule. I frankly can’t believe she ruled this way.
Apple made a good case, but it was never a slam dunk for Apple.
The publishers used to sell books to retailers for half the list price (ie $12.50 for a $25.00 book) allowing the retailer to make a profit from the book. They offer Amazon the same deal for ebooks at a list price of $20 and Amazon decides to forgo profit and sell at $9.99. When the publishers freak out they begin to charge Amazon more, yet Amazon takes a loss and keeps the price at $9.99. This freaks the publishers out even more. Along comes Apple who offer to let the publishers choose the price. They push Apple to get the price level they want and Apple pushes them to all sign at the same time.
The net result is that the publishers get what they want, Apple gets what they want, and the consumers pay slightly more for ebooks (equivalent to the amount Amazon was losing per book). At its core, what Amazon was doing was really the anti-competitive practice, trying to starve out competition. But Apple’s deal with the publishers did make customers pay more. The anti-trust laws were designed to protect customers and it’s hard to make a great case when all your other accomplices plead guilty.
They didn’t plead anything, did they? They settled out of court.
This has been true as far back as the drafting of the original licensing agreement between Apple and Microsoft with regard to Apple System software source code and its use in “Windows 1.0 and subsequent versions”. This stupid phrasing allowed Microsoft to use Apple System source code in Windows versions 2.x and 3.x.x. Then Apple’s legal team let the entire lawsuit devolve into a “look and feel” lawsuit.
Apple has not had a truly clear cut victory since the Franklin Computer lawsuit days over 30 years ago. (Franklin Computer, for those who don’t know, did a pure, nearly exact, knock off of the Apple ][. Apple filed suit to stop the sale of that computer and won all all counts and got that computer completely killed.)
Apple legal keeps screwing up time and time and time again. Even when Apple is 100% in the right Apple’s legal team cannot get a clear, unmitigated victory. When the waters are the least bit muddy (think: one gram of dirt in one million gallons of water) Apple often loses or wins a marginal victory at best and usually an unenforceable victory if one at all.
Apple svp for legal Sewell has so much free time he joined the Board of Vail Resorts (a ski resort company).
According to CNET : “The move is noteworthy given a long period (under Jobs ) during which Apple’s core executives kept off the boards of other companies”.
remember Forstall (whom so many people hate) said he spent weekends for years working overtime for apple.
it’s weird that legal has so much free time when for example Apple had to pay 60 million for the iPad name in China , a name which they thought they owned because legal didn’t realize that Taiwan and China were separate countries….
During this period too Sewell got the massive 150,000 share bonus like the other SVPs.
The iPad incident in China was nothing more than an opportunistic shakedown of Apple by China to get money to cover a Chinese company’s bankruptcy debts to other Chinese companies. Apple was losing that one no matter what it did.
when apple bought the name from Proview Taiwan they thought that it also covered the name for China. This was before the launch of the iPad.
when they wanted to sell iPad in China after the launch Proview told them that the license didn’t cover mainland China and they had to buy the name AGAIN from Proview China. It was too late then as iPad was big seller everywhere else and Proview knew they had Apple by the balls.
Most legal experts say Apple legal did a NOVICE mistake by NOT CHECKING WHETHER THEY ACTUALLY LEGALLY HAD THE MAINLAND CHINESE RIGHTS (lawyers in China commenting in blogs and newspapers were laughing at it ; i.e at apple’s waving Taiwan rights as ok for China ) . How can any legal dept whose company is doing billions of dollars of sales in China (second largest sales after USA) think that Taiwan rights = China rights?
Yeah Proview scammed them but isn’t it the JOB of the legal dept to CHECK and prevent scams (imagine a Canadian company telling a foreign firm that Canadian rights = USA rights and when they buy the rights they are covered for giant market USA and the company lawyers swallowed it?)
Please note that 60 million is huge, Amazon worldwide only made 80 million profit during the Christmas quarter . So apple paid for a NAME near the entire profits of a massive corporation.
perhaps all the apple lawyers were busy skiing at Vail ?
I think you will find the Apple lawyers totally suck and are out of control.
Denise Cote, a fool nominated to the bench by a clown, Bill “Bubba” Clinton, will be overruled in good time.
“MacDailyNews Take:
Since the judge made her “decision” pre-trial, we’d expect nothing less but for Apple to take this to the next level, if necessary, and beyond.”
It is beyond some people to believe that a company or person is beyond doing bad. This view, belief even, is so prevalent in today’s society that it lowers the bar on how wrong, bad or unethical is defined.
Except that the DOJ never proved their case.
Now, if you had complained about MDN’s take in the sense that the judge actually never overstepped her bounds by offering a pretrial opinion … that would be something. But instead, you’re just a troll.
“The decision by U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in Manhattan is a victory for the government and various states, which the judge said are entitled to injunctive relief.”
“Only Apple went to trial, while the publishers—Lagardere SCA’s Hachette Book Group and Macmillan, News Corp.’s HarperCollins Publishers, Pearson’s Penguin Group (USA), and CBS’s Simon & Schuster—settled with the U.S. government and the states.”
“In a statement to CNBC later, Apple said it will appeal the ruling.”
doc:
You say the DOJ never proved anything.
Yet, there’s a 160 page report on the decision. Have you read that? No, you haven’t. You’re a fanboy talking out his ass.
..as written by the DOJ.
Would you like it better if Apple wrote the decision. What if everyone got to write their decision? How objective would that be?
Thank god for the DOJ and government regulation or else companies would be running amuck. You’re simply out of touch with reality. An immature fanboy who has no basis in reality.
This is the real world. Apple is corrupt, and so are many other companies. There are protections in place to protect YOU from this stuff. But you’re such an idiot that it’s pointless.
you’re an idiot and worse, a shill.
You’re completely useless both online and in real life.
…and a whore, Slime…I’m sure you’ll find a new career path with the NSA or similar Stasi acronym sleaze.
“The agreements also included a price parity provision, or Most-Favored_nation clause, which not only protected Apple by guaranteeing it could match the lowest retail price listed on any competitor’s e-bookstore, but also imposed a SEVERE FINANCIAL PENALTY upon the Publisher Defendants if they did not FORCE Amazon and other retailers similarly to change their business models and cede control over e-book pricing to the Publishers. As Apple made clear to the Publishers, “There is no one outside of us that can do this for you. If we miss this opportunity, it will likely never come again.”
This and much more in the report. Read it and finally shut the fuck up. The evidence for collusion is overwhelming. Apple is a greedy pig.
Shut your piss flaps.
fuck off, shill.
Except that once Apple received guarantees that they could match prices with anyone, any time, there was no reason why they needed to collude with anyone on anything. As Eddie Cue said, at that point the whole argument about agency model or wholesale model was then a moot point.
As soon as you insert that NSA code into iOS, Apple, you’ll start winning all kinds of court cases.
(Brought to you by Carl’s Jr.)
Amen.
Apple will appeal.
So it’s ok for Amazon to establish a monopoly by selling below cost?.
Good to know they can drive all the other ebook sellers out of business, kill off all brick and mortar bookstores then dictate their terms to the now cowed publishers.
Good job DOJ and Judge Cote!
The problem with your argument is that it is not illegal to sell something below cost (not today anyway, but that is another issue), mainly because antitrust laws seek to prevent harm to CONSUMERS in the form of reduced choice or higher prices. It is not illegal to have a monopoly, only to abuse it.
Besides, how is your Amazon scenario any different to what Apple has done to the “cowed” music publishers with iTunes?
critic2:
You’re absolutely right.
Amazon has nothing to do with this fanboys. Stop deflecting things onto other companies. This is about Apple.
They conspired with publishers to raise eBook prices. That’s not good for consumers.
You people are hopeless. Like a cult. You refuse to believe anything bad about Apple. You’re so stupid that you make excuses for paying more for books.
One sucker fanboy after another, lining Apple’s pockets.
Ass, meet hole in the ground. I know you don’t know the difference.
Amazon was selling books at below cost to wipe out the competition. That is illegal. Something had to be done. Apple and the publishers fixed the problem.
The publishers caved. Apple will not cave. The Supremos will fix this.
“Amazon was selling books at below cost to wipe out the competition.”
Prove it. Demonstrate it. Show it.
I’ll save you the trouble. You can’t, because you’re a basement fanboy who sits on the Internet all day and reads BS written by the media, and other fanboys.
You don’t work for Apple.
You don’t work for Amazon.
You’re not a lawyer.
You have no experience in the publishing industry.
You haven’t read any court documentation, or the 160 page decision report.
Your comments are simply based off of a belief in a cult like thing that is Apple. You’re incredulous and irrational.
Amazon *may* have sold some books at a loss as loss leaders, like most other retailers do. And it’s perfectly legal. I have never heard of or seen Amazon losing any money on even 1 eBook. Because we are talking about eBooks here, not printed books.
All of this is why you’re basically confused and rambling.
troll/shill #324456.
Selling below cost can be considered predatory pricing.
In business and economics, predatory pricing is the practice of selling a product or service at a very low price, intending to drive competitors out of the market, or create barriers to entry for potential new competitors. If competitors or potential competitors cannot sustain equal or lower prices without losing money, they go out of business or choose not to enter the business. The predatory merchant then has fewer competitors or is even a de facto monopoly.
In my opinion, Amazon’s selling below cost is clearly predatory pricing. Why our government chose to do nothing about it is the big question.
I don’t know where the legal/illegal distinction is between selling below cost is, but I’m pretty sure adding more laws won’t help. If Amazon is prosecuted for selling for below cost, should Google be prosecuted for giving away Android for free, just because other mobile OS companies make a profit? Should Apple be allowed to give away FaceTime and iMessages, when competitors exist? The goal is not to legislate the market, but let it regulate itself for the benefit of the consumer. It’s a terribly messy and injust practice. But trying to legislate a level playing field would make it worse. Apple could well lose this case in appeal. Amazon could end up with a monopoly. Microsoft did. But eventually the product that best satisfies the customers needs will win out in the marketplace.
FaceTime and iMessages aren’t comparable to book sales. There are many other free programs so giving them away wouldn’t be unfair competition.
Yes, it is a difficult distinction between a company simply trying to compete a gain a foothold in a competitive market and a company who is trying to drive out all other competitors. However, there is a point where it becomes fairly obvious that is what happens. Like when a company gets to 90% market share yet is still selling below cost. Worse still is thinking that said company would continue selling below cost once they had driven out all competition. What seems to be a win for the consumer will in the long term become a loss.
There is a reason we have regulations to protect the consumer. Yes, they can be onerous. Yes, they sometimes can go too far. But companies have proven time and time again that without some regulation they will screw the consumer and the marketplace.
As for Google and Android, yes, there has been occasional talk of other companies suing them for giving Android away. However, in Google’s case, it is not so simple. They don’t make money on Android itself, but rather from the customers who use Android phones, so they cab argue that they aren’t simply giving it away.
Yeah, FaceTime and iMessages were a stretch, but I wanted to point out the futility in trying to evoke fairness through the legal proceedings.
I actually agree with you and think that we should go after the most aggriecious examples of uncompetitive business practices like Amazons in ebooks, but it gets hard to draw the line. So many tech companies nowadays try to commoditize the service or product they don’t compete in to protect the product or service they do compete
This outcome is a disservice to real competition in the ebook market, which is a shame, but not necessarily a sham, as so many here assert.
I don’t personally think that Apple acted malevolent here, and actually approve both them and the publishers trying to protect the perceived value of an author’s work. But Apple put a lot of pressure on the publishers to take the deal, and when all the publishers settled rather than stand trial, it certainly didn’t help Apple defend their stance of innocence.
Can’t argue with you on any of this.
I personally have a hard time understanding today’s verdict after following the trial reasonably closely, but obviously the decision wasn’t up to me. The biggest problem I have as pointed out by others was the judge went in to this trial already thinking Apple was guilty. That alone will likely be grounds to overturn this verdict.
Holder should resign or be kicked out. This is a travesty.
I’d prefer a public hanging on a yardarm off the fourth floor of the UN building.
What over whelming evidence? Judge was paid off by the government. That’s how she made the decision. Apple needs an appeal judge that has not been manipulated by government officials.
Almost every politician and high-level judge is corrupt to the core. Only the few can interpret the obfuscated thousand-paged laws with their own twisted version of justice in favor of the corrupt. And soon all smart technology will serve to step on the many as well. The only solution to this is to replace all seats of power in the three branches with champions of the Bill of Rights.
“The only solution to this is to replace all seats of power in the three branches with champions of the Bill of Rights.”
…and the end of the Federal Reserve System and the return of printing of currency to the Congress. (and its whore sister, the Federal Income Tax.)
my goal since 11-22-63.
Oh, come on – Obama believes in the separation of powers.
He keeps the courts in his pocket.
He keeps the Congresss in his hands.
And, of course, in his own mind he’s the greatest President we’ve ever had.
See? All separate.
Apple takes their standard percent cut and if they are free than Apple gets nothing but host the FREE release. Are the iOS apps next? How about the music? To demand a standard and that the Apple users are not charged more just because they are Apple users is the correct way to go. If they want $9.99 or $19.99 or $49.99 or FREE, that is not Apple’s choice.
How about the way gas is taxed? The state gets the same percent cut for a gallon or 20 gallons. Where does this end?
If people don’t want to buy it they don’t have to. Books come in paper too.
Isn’t that the way taxes should be done? Same deal for everyone? I think it is called a flat tax? No lobbyists or accountants required.
I’m so depressed by this news. The problem with boycotting Amazon is that it doesn’t have any effect. The lemmings flock to the lowest prices knowing full well the ills that come about as a result, i.e., WalMart owners have the same amount of money as 40% of the population of the US and hire only part-time employees so as to avoid health care costs. Samsung sells 75% (fact-check) of the smartphones the world over and they’re basically the Korean mafia. Where have ethics and hone gone? This cannot end well.
ethics and honor, not ethics and hone.
Let me tell you how this all ends: You die! And since there is no life after death, thus no way the evil ever really end up suffering (and they are very confident of this fact), justice and fairness are only smoke and mirrors. Do not expect things to ever get better. Live the best life you can and try to be happy.
You should be happy. This is great news for consumers and industry. Lower prices and Apple doesn’t control eBook pricing with monopolistic, draconian contracting.
Nonsense, it is a large money grab from the largest pile of money on earth. It is blatantly obvious.
I’m pretty sure that is the reason the Judge gave the verdict before the trial started. She had orders to rule against Apple so she gave grounds for a mistrial before the trial started.
Sure althegeo, sure.
This is why you stockpile your cash and not give it to stock manipulators: so you can fight the lack of justice in this country. Any questions as to why SJ was not a proponent of dispersing cash willy-nilly?
why do police departments do credit checks when hiring employees? because poor credit = financial need & makes them a risk for corruption.
AMZN needs a ‘credit check’ on their P/E because the loss leader business model financed by stockholders is bankrupting many legitimate profitable businesses.
Apple – the company who can do no wrong – yeah right.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Barnes and Noble has stopped forward support of the Nook and the President of the Company has resigned. Amazon was (and is) providing the low price competition for hand held tablets. Apple continues to support much higher prices, leaving room for a competitor to operate under Apple’s price umbrella. Amazon is driving Barnes and Noble out of business. Period.
No, Amazon is not driving B&N out of business. B&N is because of incompetence.
I have no problem with loss leaders as a rule, if a company can afford it and they can justify it by increased sales elsewhere as a result then fine. The whole thing just seems to stink though.
There are laws to protect competition from this sort of thing.
Do you think it would be fair if Apple charged a penny for every book they offered? They have more than enough money to do this for the next 10 years, driving out ALL competition.
Apple is not in the business of putting down others’, there in business to make excellent products to make a profit.
Plenty of shops sell things at a loss – a prime example being supermarkets selling staple items at low prices to attract customers in knowing they’ll make it back on other items people buy at the same time. As a customer I don’t have a problem with that per se. I do have a problem with companies doing it in order to corner the market and using their size to outlast other companies. That’s what decent regulation should be for. The whole ebook market seems iffy anyway, as does any market where creative people produce content, which publishers then cream off the majority of the profits. I’m not defending Amazon by any means. That digital content is often way more expensive than the physical product seems odd.
The court has confused the segment of “new and best selling” titles with the market for all e-books. The court also failed to look at Amazon’s other businesses that will be the sole beneficiaries of Amazon’s predatory pricing, notwithstanding the fact that prices to consumers ***for these select titles*** were lowered. (Which is not unlike the Standard Oil case of 1911, actually.) Unfortunately, the legal basis for showing anti-trust activity is over 100 years old. It is time to update these obsolete precedents in the light of modern legal and economic theory, practice, and experience. This includes insights available from modern “game theory”.