Pulse2 Technology and Social Media News » Simon & Schuster

Apple Officially Says They Are Not Colluding With The Publishing Industry

Amit Chowdhry — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 03:36:18 +0000

Apple has officially responded to the lawsuit brought on to them by the U.S. Department of Justice. Below is a statement from Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr.

The DOJ’s accusation of collusion against Apple is simply not true. The launch of the iBookstore in 2010 fostered innovation and competition, breaking Amazon’s monopolistic grip on the publishing industry. Since then customers have benefited from eBooks that are more interactive and engaging. Just as we’ve allowed developers to set prices on the App Store, publishers set prices on the iBookstore.

Apple’s response is similar to the statements that were made by Penguin Group and MacMillan, which are two out of the five publishers that are named in the lawsuit. The three other publishers HarperCollings, Hachette, and Simon & Schuster already signed settlements with the Justice Department.

U.S. Justice Department Files Lawsuit Against Apple

Amit Chowdhry — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 16:00:40 +0000

The U.S. Justice Department had filed a lawsuit against Apple, Hachette SA, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin, and Simon & Schuster in the New York District Court claiming that they have been colluding on e-book price fixing. Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, and Hachette is rumored to have settled their lawsuits, but Apple and Macmillan refused to engage in settlement talks.

Apple and Macmillan would most likely argue that the pricing agreements between Apple and the publishers would have enhanced the competition in the e-book market, which was being dominated by Amazon.com. The Justice Department is investigating how Apple came up with the ways that e-books are being charged on the iPad.

Apple, Penguin, and Macmillan have been pushing to protect the agency model, which allows the publisher set the e-book prices rather than the vendors. The government is pushing for a wholesale model where retailers can decide what to charge customers.

European Union Now Investigating Book Publishers and Apple on Price Fixing

Amit Chowdhry — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 19:44:43 +0000

The European Commission has launched an investigation into the Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) iBookstore. They are checking to see whether Apple and a group of international publishers are fixing e-book prices. They are checking to see if Apple and the book publishers are violating antitrust rules. The 5 publishers include Livre, Harper Collins, Simon & Schuster, Penguin, and Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck.

The European Commission will be looking into the characters and terms of the agreements between the publishers and e-book retailers. The European Commission believes that the agreement between the publishers and Apple has breached antitrust rules that prohibit “cartels and restrictive business practices.” Yes, they just compared Apple and the book publishers to cartels. Yikes.

Steve Jobs cut a deal with the five publishers shortly before the iPad press conference in January 2010. This was around the same time that Apple launched the IBookstore.

[Fortune]

Authorized Biography Of Steve Jobs Written By Walter Isaacson Coming In Early 2012

Amit Chowdhry — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 06:07:36 +0000

Walter Isaacson is writing an authorized biography on Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs. Book publisher Simon & Schuster announced this past weekend that Isaacson’s book will be called “iSteve: The Book of Jobs” and it will be out in early 2012. Isaacson has been working on the biography since 2009.

Isaacson interviewed Jobs’ family members, competitors, and colleagues to come up with the book’s content. Several biographies have been written about Jobs, but this is the first authorized book. Isaacson is a former executive at CNN and Time Magazine. Isaacson has written best sellers about Benjamin Franklin and Albert Einstein.

[ABC News]

Scribd Reaches Deal With Publishers For Hosting E-Books

Amit Chowdhry — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 03:12:07 +0000

Scribd is a document sharing website that has about 50 million monthly users and has about 50,000 documents uploaded daily. The company was rolled out of Y-Combinator and eventually raised funding from Redpoint Ventures, Charles River Ventures, and The Kinsley Hills Group. It was recently announced that Scribd signed an agreement with major publishing companies to host free e-books.

Through Scribd, users can upload PDFs, DOCs, and other text files. Scribd then presents the document in a web Flash format.

Scribd signed agreements with Random House, Simon & Schuster, and Workman Publishing Co. The terms of the agreement was undisclosed. Scribd will provide a variety of book material at no cost. This includes excerpts from books and even full books. Full novels without much of an audience will be the ones made free.

[via Ars Technica]