geekosystem

A month ago, Apple and five other publishers were warned that the U.S. Department of Justice was seeking a case for collusion and price fixing regarding eBook prices. Now, it would seem those warnings weren't full of hot air, as the Department of Justice has officially filed a lawsuit against Apple, Hachette Book Group, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, Macmillan, and Penguin, claiming that these publishers colluded to fix eBook prices. Word on the people familiar with the matter street says Simon & Schuster, Hachette Book Group, and HarperCollins already settled their suits, but Apple and Macmillan have refused to engage in talks, and deny that they have participated in an collusion to fix eBook prices.

According to a report on The Wall Street Journal, the Department of Justice has taken notice of eBook publishing and pricing. Federal prosecutors have sent letters to Apple, Simon & Schuster, Hachette Book Group, Penguin Group, Macmillan, and HarperCollins, stating that the Department of Justice is seeking a case for collusion and price-fixing. Aside from potentially reading about a possibly long legal battle, what consumers could expect from this is, intriguingly, lower eBook prices.

Apple, along with book publishers HarperCollins, Hachette, Mcmillan, Penguin and Simon & Schuster are now involved in a class-action lawsuit that accuses them of colluding to fix prices in order to hurt Amazon's Kindle success. The lawsuit, being brought by a Seattle law firm, suggests that all the parties involved had reason to be afraid of Amazon's pro-consumer pricing scheme for both its hardware and for eBooks. The logic of the case goes something like this: Publishers were concerned about lost profits from the sale of Amazon's eBooks, Apple was concerned that the Kindle could seriously damage the iPad's viability as an eBook reader, and therefore, the two teamed up to fix prices to try and thwart Amazon's eBook endeavors.

Let's pretend we live in a world where digital objects are forced to reflect the utility of a real-world analogue. For instance, we could say that this blog is a lot like a newspaper, and require that it be sold at news stands, get ink on your fingers, would require the destruction of an entire forest, and only be durable to last a few days. "This world is ludicrous!" I hear you cry. But this is the world in which book publisher HarperCollins wants us to live.

The Pioneer Library System of Oklahoma has posted an open letter to their blog in which they reveal that the eBooks that HarperCollins makes available to the library for its (groundbreaking, and totally amazing sounding) digital loan program will self-destruct after 26 checkouts.