“The benches were hard. The courtroom was over-cooled. The reporting challenges were daunting (no Wi-Fi, no cellphones, no laptops),” Philip Elmer-DeWitt writes for Fortune. “But the drama that unfolded over three weeks of testimony was compelling, and I was happy to be one of a handful of reporters who sat through the whole thing.”
“I thought I had a good handle on U.S.A. v. Apple — a.k.a. the e-book antitrust case. I knew U.S. District Judge Denise Cote — a former prosecutor — had gone into the trial predisposed against the defendant. She said as much in a pre-trial hearing,” P.E.D. writes. “But I thought Apple (AAPL) had put forward a strong defense. Like the Author’s Guild and at least one U.S. Senator, I thought the government was prosecuting the wrong company. At several points during the trial I thought the judge was coming around to Apple’s point of view.”
P.E.D writes, “Having read Judge Cote’s 160-page opinion, in which she questioned the credibility of Apple’s key witness, ridiculed its legal defense and ruled decisively against the company, I see that my view from the benches wasn’t so good after all. How could I have been so wrong?”
Read more in the full article here.
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Judge Denise Cote likely wrote most of her U.S.A. v. Apple ebooks case decision before the trial – July 10, 2013
U.S.A. v. Apple: NY judge rules Apple colluded to fix ebook prices, led illegal conspiracy, violated U.S. antitrust laws – July 10, 2013