Publius? In what way were five publishing companies out of over 2000 and a retailer with less than 4% of the retail ebook market a monopoly?
Amazon, with 90% of the eBook sales was DICTATING to all the eBook publishers what the wholesale price of eBooks was going to be, and what the retail price would be—regardless of size, graphics (and royalties for said included graphics), word/page count, editing costs, publicity costs, or any other costs associated with the production of that eBook—digital copies of best-sellers would be sold on Amazon for $9.99 regardless of the selling price of their hardback bound and paper bound versions!
Amazon's was the TRUE price fixing monopoly!
Even after the introduction of the Agency model of eBook sales, Amazon has a whopping 60% of the eBook market... yet THEY filed the complaint that resulted in the anti-trust action against Apple and five publishers who participate in Agency pricing, which Amazon benefits from! It is just that Amazon no longer has a 90% monopoly of eBooks... and a whopping profit margin on eBooks, dictated by their overwhelming market force!
A digital product does NOT lend itself well to the wholesale model of sale, like a hard copy of a book. There IS NO INVENTORY to sell... no hard product to ship, store, sell, and send to a retail customer. No product for a jobber or retailer to purchase, stock, shelve, display, and resell to an end user. A digital product is an intangible... and is more suitable to be sold in an Agency model.
There is obviously room in the market for BOTH models... but that did not suit Amazon. They were pissed that their monopoly was broken! So they complained to the FEDS... They want their model back... the one that was breaking the backs of the publishers and the authors and allowing one big player to dictate the price of all best selling eBooks.
Swordmaker, I will not answer your silly questions until you stop throwing out incomplete "facts" pulled out of some intestinal outlet, and start documenting them with neutral source references. That is, e.g. what five publishers? What is their market share of fiction? non fiction?
Why are some paper books several dollars higher than the ebook editions?
The present market share of the co-conspirator (and mastermind) of the scam is irrelevant, if Apple devises a circumvention to prevent all other present and future retailers, regardless of size, and obligates those five publishers to not negotiate contracts, ever, that might put Apple at a disadvantage. That walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, etc. Collusion and price-fixing by any other names.
If your "facts" are actually complete and true, why hasn't Amazon been sued by anyone? If Steve Jobs thought Amazon was violating any law, why the subterfuge and games to attempt to control not only Amazon, but also future competition by illegal means?
Try some new arguments. Those are getting stale, and make no sense at all.
Oh yes. Are you a shill for Apple? Forbes? Cnet? a publisher? A fanatic Applebot? What?
Amazon set its own retail price, which was often below the wholesale price. Amazon's idea was for the e-books to be a loss leader for sales of its Kindle. How is Amazon setting its own price a "price fixing monopoly?"
Amazon, with 90% of the eBook sales[. . . .] Amazon has a whopping 60% of the eBook market... yet THEY filed the complaint that resulted in the anti-trust action against Apple and five publishers who participate in Agency pricing, which Amazon benefits from!
According to you, Amazon lost 30% of its marketshare in e-books. How does Amazon benefit from the agency model? Also, if the publishers were conspiring with themselves and Apple to fix the price of e-books, why shouldn't Amazon have the right to press the government for action?
They want their model back... the one that was breaking the backs of the publishers and the authors and allowing one big player to dictate the price of all best selling eBooks.
Indeed. Their model that allowed e-books to be sold at a lower price.