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.

In order to celebrate Frozen Planet, a joint effort by the BBC and the Discovery Channel, the Discovery Channel and SeaWorld San Diego have teamed to stream SeaWorld's exhibit of socially awkward penguins: "Penguin Encounter". Well, it's technically an exhibit of "regular" penguins. But still, there's bound to be some awkwardness. The stream is going on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week until April 30th, so there's a lot of penguin to be watched. Several penguins have already attempted to hatch the camera, which looks a bit like a big black egg, so there are doubtlessly more hijinks in store. Be sure to check it out and check back every now and then, who knows what you might see.

Some of our readers may be familiar with the classic children's claymation series Pingu, about a young penguin and his friends and family living in the arctic. Some of our readers may also be familiar with John Carpenter's The Thing, a delightfully gory re-make of the classic sci-fi film. Today, those two groups will overlap thanks to Lee Hardcastle in something that is both wonderful and horrible. Be warned, if Play-Doh gore upsets you, then you should probably not watch this video.

As you are doubtless aware, Amazon has been making a big push into the digital distribution of books. They've got several varieties of Kindles designed for the purpose and a terrific platform from which to do so, the main problem so far has really been reluctant publishers. It seems that Amazon has found a potential way around that, however; hire the authors yourself. Traditional publishers have been scared of eBooks pretty much from the start since their easy distribution undermines the problem publishing houses were made to solve. With Amazon's push to allow for Netflix-style book rental, most big publishers backed off even further, prompting Amazon to try and lure, coerce, or force them into cooperation. That hasn't worked so well, so Amazon is throwing down the gauntlet and publishing 122 books this fall, in physical and eBook form.

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.