In the recent lawsuit between Apple and several big publishers on one side, and Amazon on the other, where Apple et al. wanted to let the publishers set ebook prices and Amazon wanted to be free to sell at any price (to undersell the publishers), I was rooting for Apple et al. — because I'm an author and I saw their position as favoring authors, while not really hurting the consumer significantly. The Authors Guild has been arguing that the Amazon position, if it prevailed, would damage the whole publishing industry. Well, it has prevailed so far. The issues are complicated (it's the lawyers' job to make them so); here's an explanation by Jane Litte that should interest any other authors out there.
Antitrust Primer for the Publishing Price Fixing Lawsuit
And here's what Scott Turow, president of the Authors Guild has to say about it: Grim news.
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