publishers

Last month the United States Department of Justice (DoJ) announced it was suing Apple and major publishers like Penguin and Macmillan for fixing the price of electronic books, or e-books. It has taken some time, but Apple has now responded to that ... suit by denying any involvement in e-book price fixing. In April, the DoJ said that Apple and at least five publishers colluded to increase the price of electronic books, starting in early 2010. The DoJ dated the beginning of this collusion to roughly the same time the Cupertino, California-based technology firm was preparing to launch its now very ... (view more)

The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) and fifteen U.S. states are suing Apple and some major book publishers for colluding to keep electronic book prices higher than they should be. According to a report, the alleged conspiracy cost ... consumers more than $100 million during the past two years. According to the DOJ, Apple worked with several major publishers, including Penguin, Simon ... (view more)

The law firm that accused Apple of conspiring to fix the prices of electronic books has made new allegations, offering quotes from key Apple executives, including former Apple boss Steve Jobs, as evidence of collusion. Hagens Berman has filed a ... class action suit on behalf of everyone who bought an electronic book during a particular period, alleging that Apple offered two different pricing systems: a 'traditional' and an 'agency' model. The traditional model originated with Amazon for its Kindle books, and copies pricing for printed books: the publisher charges retailers a fixed price, ... (view more)

Amazon is said to be considering a library-style subscription service that will allow users to read multiple books on its Kindle e-reader for a single fee. However, it appears publishers may not like the idea. It's reported that Amazon is currently ... in talks with publishing firms about the service, which would be offered to Amazon Prime customers. Originally, Prime (which costs $79 per year) simply entitled members to free two-day shipping across the US on all items, no matter their value. Amazon has since added access to a limited range of online streaming movies and television shows, so book ... (view more)

Google is once again preparing to battle Apple to win customers in the mobile gadget field. The search giant is reported to be working on a "digital newsstand": a central resource for users of devices running its Android system to get hold of ... newspapers and magazines. The newsstand would aim to solve three problems with digital publishing on Android tablet devices. First, many titles are currently only available as web pages viewable through an ordinary browser, such as Google's Chrome. While that works, it can be quite unwieldy for users wanting to "browse" an entire issue rather than simply ... (view more)

Amazon appears to have blinked first in its stand-off with publishing giant Macmillan over the pricing of Kindle books. The online retailer had even briefly stopped selling printed Macmillan books over the dispute. The disagreement centered on ... Amazon's policy of charging a flat rate of $9.99 for the electronic edition of virtually all new titles it stocks. Macmillan demanded that it be able to set its own pricing, with most major books priced between $12.99 and $14.99. Royalties Replace Fixed Fees At the moment, Amazon pays publishers a fixed fee for each digital sale worth roughly half the ... (view more)

The U.S. Justice Department says it has legal concerns over a proposed deal between Google and American book authors and publishers. While not a killer blow to the deal, the comments significantly decrease the likelihood that it will ever receive ... court approval. The deal would settle a long-running case in which the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers sued Google for scanning books without permission. Pages from these books then appeared as results in the Google Books search service. The proposed settlement would include setting up a registry of copyrighted books, ... (view more)