e-books

Apple subpoenas Amazon for interviews in e-book suit

Apple is on the offensive again in the e-book pricing lawsuit. A subpoena issued by the tech giant in July has just surfaced and demands that the Department of Justice turn over interviews it conducted with Amazon employees for the suit, according to Paid Content.

The subpoena asks for "transcripts and exhibits" and a "list of individuals interviewed" by the DOJ in depositions.

To recap the case: in an antitrust lawsuit filed in April, federal prosecutors accused Apple and five book publishers of conspiring to artificially hike prices. At the time, Amazon was selling e-books much … Read more

EU to market test e-book settlement proposed by publishers, Apple

The European Union's executive arm confirmed today that Apple and four e-book publishers have offered up a settlement deal on e-book price-setting that could be approved in the coming months.

According to the European Commission, Apple, Harper Collins, Hachette Livre, Macmillan, and Simon & Schuster (which is owned by CBS, the same company that publishes CNET) have agreed to terminate e-book agency pricing contracts and allow retailers to set their own prices on titles for a period of two years.

The proposed deal, which the EC did not offer an opinion on, will now be open to public comment, … Read more

Media moguls partner to form new e-book publisher

Two powerful entertainment media figures have joined forces on a new entrant in the e-book publishing sector.

IAC Chairman Barry Diller and movie producer Scott Rudin have partnered on a new venture called Brightline, according to The New York Times. The pair, which have been rumored to be discussing a partnership since July, will publish e-books in conjunction with Atavist, a publisher specializing in e-books and electronic articles.

Diller, the former Fox executive credited with turning Fox Broadcasting into a major network, said he sees opportunity in the turbulent sector, which had $282 million in e-book revenue in the first … Read more

Judge delays Google e-book trial

Google won a delay in its copyright fight with the Authors Guild, which sued the company over its efforts to scan millions of books and make passages available online.

Judge Raymond Lohier of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Manhattan granted Google's request to stay a lower-court trial while the company appeals a decision that will allow the plaintiffs to sue as a class, Bloomberg reports.

In June, U.S. Circuit Judge Denny Chin, who is sitting in as a trial judge in the case, granted it class-action status. But Google is appealing, saying many authors covered by … Read more

Publishers' worst nightmare: Amazon again on discount warpath

Last week, HarperCollins, Hachette, and Simon & Schuster cut a deal with the government to settle allegations that the book publishers had colluded with Apple to fix the price of e-books. If you believe the government's charges, the book publishers were trying to prevent Amazon from discounting them to death.

Now it's back to the future. Earlier today came word that Amazon had returned to form, discounting HarperCollins e-books titles.

"We are happy to again be lowering prices on a broad assortment of HarperCollins titles," Amazon spokeswoman Sarah Gelman said in an e-mailed comment to CNET.… Read more

Kindle for Mac App Store gets performance boost

Amazon has updated its OS X app with some new features readers should find useful.

First up, Amazon's new 1.10.3 version of Kindle comes with support for more OS X gestures, including panning and swiping. The app now supports Amazon's Kindle Format 8 books, which deliver some improved formatting options. Heavy readers will be happy to discover that the app also supports larger libraries and will work much better with books that have bunches of notes and highlights.

Amazon's Kindle app is the company's Trojan horse into the world of iOS and OS X. … Read more

DOJ, please don't let up on Apple, book publishers

It's not wrong for retailers to discount books, and losing market share to a competitor is no excuse to fix prices or cheat consumers.

That's the message U.S. District Court Judge Denise Cote sent yesterday to Apple and the country's top book publishers, as well as e-book retailers.

In April, the Department of Justice filed suit and accused five of the country's largest book publishers of conspiring with Apple to raise e-book prices. Soon after, the DOJ reached a settlement agreement with three of the accused publishers. For months, the book industry attacked the settlement, … Read more

Court OKs feds' e-book settlement with publishers

A federal court has approved a settlement agreement reached between the U.S. Department of Justice and three book publishers accused of conspiring with Apple to fix e-book prices.

The DOJ filed suit against Apple and five of the country's largest book publishers in April and accused the group of antitrust violations. Immediately after filing the complaint, the government announced that it had reached a settlement with three of the five accused publishers: Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, and Simon & Schuster (owned by CBS, parent company of CNET).

As part of that settlement, the three e-book publishers agreed … Read more

Barnes & Noble fixes Nook Simple Touch sync issue

Barnes & Noble has fixed a library syncing issue with new Nook Simple Touch devices after customers took to support forums to complain for at least two weeks.

Barnes & Nobles spokeswoman Mary Ellen Keating said the issue, which according to the company affected less than 0.3 percent of Nook customers, was resolved overnight.

"We had a temporary and minor glitch as a result of recent internal maintenance," she wrote in an e-mail to CNET today. "All customers should be able to register and sync their devices. We apologize to those few customers affected by this … Read more