Thursday, July 19, 2012

If Amazon is allowed to rule the e-book market, "we will all suffer." Schumer says Apple e-books suit "could wipe out the publishing industry". From @arstechnica

The US Department of Justice's lawsuit against Apple and a handful of e-book publishers "could wipe out the publishing industry as we know it," according to Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY). In an editorial published in the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, Schumer argued that the lawsuit could make it more difficult for new authors to get published if Apple is forced to adopt Amazon's wholesale model for e-books, and that by moving forward with the suit, the DoJ is "[missing] the forest for the trees."

"If publishers, authors and consumers are at the mercy of a single retailer that controls 90% of the market and can set rock-bottom prices, we will all suffer," Schumer wrote in reference to Amazon, which completely dominated the e-book market until Apple introduced the iPad and its iBookstore in early 2010. "Choice is critical in any market, but that is particularly true in cultural markets like books. The prospect that a single firm would control access to books should give any reader pause."

Read on here.....http://wtr.mn/Ou1jl4

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