The
lawsuit by the Federal government against Apple and some eBook
publishers regarding eBook price fixing did not alter the upbeat mood of this
year’s BEA (BookExpo America), but murmurs of conversation were detected
reverberating through the cavernous halls of the Javits Center. The “comment
period” on this eBook case expires on June 25.
So far, the Department of Justice has received over 150 letters totaling
200 pages, and expects more before the deadline. The initial agreement between Apple
and five publishers allows the publishers to set the selling price of their books
that are sold in the Apple store (agency model). In return, Apple receives 30% of the sell
price, which is a very nice piece of revenue.
In doing so, the publishers agreed not to sell their eBooks at a lower
price elsewhere. Amazon wants to set the
prices for eBooks, even if it is at a loss.
So publishers are now faced with breaking their agreement with Apple, or
not selling their eBooks on Amazon.
The
Justice Department doesn’t seem to grasp that the publishing industry
is in a state of major flux due to the Internet. Publishers are fighting for survival and
authors are selling their own materials online - eliminating the “middleman”
distributor. Amazon also has programs
that help authors do this type of direct selling. So why not let the publishers
figure out which model works the best for them?
Why do we need intervention by the Federal government regarding book
distribution? This viewpoint was echoed on
June 7 in a complaint by Barnes & Noble, which stated that any settlement “would
represent an unprecedented effort to “become a regulator of a nascent
technology that it little understands.” Antitrust laws are based on the premise
that government intervention is needed to ensure competition, but the market
can determine that without the government’s help. We just need to be patient and let the marketplace
work things out for the publishing industry.
