Jul 12
Jul 11
In Amazon dispute, EU Court of Justice rules that levies on blank CDs can be collected ‘in some cases’
Posted in: Today's Chili
Amazon’s spent quite a bit of time in court as of late; in addition to a recently settled trademark dispute with Apple, a row with an Austrian copyright collection agency is keeping the e-tailer busy. Today, the European Court of Justice ruled that, in some cases, EU countries can collect a levy on blank recording media to ensure that musicians are compensated for their work.
The key phrase here is “in some cases,” since establishing whether CDs, memory cards, cassette tapes and other media have been used for public consumption isn’t exactly easy — and it’s not yet clear whether Amazon will have to pay the 1.9 million euros in question. The next step will be for the Austrian supreme court to decide whether it can even be determined whether Amazon customers used such blank media for anything other than home videos and mix tapes. After all, some would argue that burning a French-electro mix to torment your coworkers on a nine-hour drive is hardly a crime.
Via: Reuters
Jul 11
Jul 10
Amazon Prime Instant Video inks deal with Miramax, lets you Kill Bill on demand
Posted in: Today's Chili
Amazon’s Prime Instant Video has long trailed behind Netflix in terms of catalog size and quality, but today’s Miramax licensing deal should give it a much needed competitive boost. All the art house, indie and cult flicks you’ve likely amassed into a cherished DVD collection — Trainspotting, Amélie and Pulp Fiction, anyone? — are now available to stream to any device compatible with Prime Instant Video. So if you’ve let your Tarantino quotes get rusty, now’s the perfect time to brush up. You got that hunny bunny? Yeah, we thought so.
Jul 10
A generation of innovators want to change the way we have sex and consume porn, but Google, Apple, and Amazon won’t let them.
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Jul 10
Amazon Prime just added hundreds of Miramax titles in its instant video library, including award win
Posted in: Today's ChiliAmazon Prime just added hundreds of Miramax titles in its instant video library, including award winners like Good Will Hunting and The English Patient, as well as cult favorites like Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, Trainspotting and Reservoir Dogs. It’s a good get for the streaming service, especially after having lost so many of its greatest hits
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Jul 10
A federal judge today ruled that Apple is guilty of violating antitrust law by conspiring with major publishers to raise e-book prices.
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Jul 10
Apple will fight the ebook price fixing ruling, the company has said today, promising to appeal the court’s decision and accusing Amazon of having a “monopolistic grip on the publishing industry.” The official statement follows a New York federal court ruling this morning that Apple colluded with five major publishers to force the ebook industry to the so-called “agency model” and, in the process, drive up prices – and margins – on ebook downloads for the iBookstore.
Apple, Justice Denise Cote wrote in a 160-page ruling on the case brought by the DOJ, “played a central role in facilitating and executing” a conspiracy to raise the cost of ebooks. Until Apple’s launch of the iBookstore, new releases had been around $9.99 on Amazon. After publishers made their push to the agency model, that rose to, on average, $14.99.
“Without Apple’s orchestration of this conspiracy, it would not have succeeded as it did in the Spring of 2010″ Justice Cote concluded.
However, unsurprisingly Apple is not willing to accept the court’s decision, and will fight the ruling in an appeal. “Apple did not conspire to fix ebook pricing and we will continue to fight against these false accusations” the company said in a statement. “When we introduced the iBookstore in 2010, we gave customers more choice, injecting much needed innovation and competition into the market, breaking Amazon’s monopolistic grip on the publishing industry.”
“We’ve done nothing wrong and we will appeal the judge’s decision” the spokesperson said.
With the initial case concluded, next up is a trial to settle on damages. There’s no indication as to what Apple might eventually be required to pay – both to the US government and to numerous states – though Penguin, which voluntarily settled (as did all the publishers involved) with the DOJ coughed up $75m including damages.
Amazon is yet to comment on the ruling, or indeed Apple’s portrayal of it as “monopolistic.”
Apple: We’ll appeal ebook price fix ruling is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Jul 10
Apple has been found guilty of ebook price fixing, with a New York federal judge ruling today that the Cupertino firm conspired with publishers to drive up the cost in its iBookstore. The ruling will now be followed by a trial for damages, Reuters reports, which will decide how much Apple must pay the US government and several states.
The non-jury trial began in early June, with Apple defending itself against the Department of Justice over claims it worked with publishers to move the digital book market to the so-called “agency model.” Whereas previously, retailers such as Amazon had been setting their own prices for ebooks for Kindle, and similar, Apple and the publishers preferred the greater margins available through themselves setting the sticker price.
According to the DOJ, that counted as manipulating the market, and it threatened to haul five of the big publishers – Hachette, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, and The Penguin Group – into court as well as Apple. Over time, each publisher settled – though admitted no wrongdoing in the process – so as to escape greater censure, but Apple insisted on taking the case all the way to the courtroom.
Even before the trial started, however, the outlook looked grim. The judge, having only reviewed preliminary evidence, suggested that Apple was likely to lose, despite the best efforts of the Cupertino firm’s legal team to argue the DOJ was presenting evidence selectively to mislead.
In fact, Apple said, it was acting in the best interest of publishing overall. The company warned of a “chilling effect” on ebooks if it was found guilty.
“The plaintiffs have shown that the publisher defendants conspired with each other to eliminate retail price competition in order to raise e-book prices, and that Apple played a central role in facilitating and executing that conspiracy,” US District Judge Denise Cote wrote in a 160-page ruling on the case. “Without Apple’s orchestration of this conspiracy,” she said, “it would not have succeeded as it did in the Spring of 2010.”
It’s unclear to what extent the damages could run, though we’d guess Apple will be doing everything in its power to appeal the decision. The exact details of the settlements each of the five publishers eventually agreed with the DOJ have not been revealed, but Penguin is known to have coughed up $75m plus costs to settle the claims across 33 US states, along with a class-action lawsuit.
What this could mean for ebook prices from iBooks, Kindle, NOOK, and other stores also remains to be seen; Amazon is eager to return to the days where a new ebook would be $9.99, rather than the $12.99-15.99 that the agency model has settled on today.
Apple is yet to comment on the decision; we’ve reached out to the company, and will update when we have more. Update: Apple has commented on the ruling, and will fight it in appeal.
Apple guilty in ebook price-fix trial is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Jul 05
Amazon has apparently dropped the price of its Kindle Fire HD ereader-tablet in what appears to be a response to Barnes & Noble’s NOOK HD cuts, dropping the 7-inch Android-based slate by as much as 15-percent in the US and UK. The price adjustment sees the 7-inch Kindle Fire HD come down to £139 in the UK (saving £20) for the 16GB model, and to $169 (saving $30) in the US, compared to the latest 7-inch NOOK HD at £129/$149 for the 16GB model.
In the US, Amazon lists the Kindle Fire HD change as a “limited time” offer, though it’s worth noting that B&N has used the same nomenclature for its own discounting. Our suspicion is that the cuts will last for roughly as long as the other company’s do, given the fierce competition between the two firms.
Despite Amazon’s changes, the NOOK HD is still the cheaper of the two. For a start, B&N offers an 8GB version, which is $129, and has no direct capacity equivalent in the Kindle Fire HD range. However, B&N’s motivations are very different to Amazon’s as well: the company admitted last month that it planned to clear its stock of existing NOOK HD/HD+ models and then in future license the brand to third-party tablet manufacturers, rather than make its own models.
Instead, B&N would focus solely on developing e-paper based ereaders, such as the SimpleTouch. NOOK sales overall in Q2 – including ereader hardware, software, and accessories – dropped 34-percent, with the company blaming a shortage of high-profile titles as well as waning hardware appeal.
It’s not the first time Amazon has shuffled Kindle pricing to ramp up pressure on B&N. Back in 2009 the retailer cut the second-gen Kindle after its rival launched the NOOK, on the assumption that ongoing content sales would offset any narrowing of hardware margins.
VIA Paul O’Brien
Amazon cuts Kindle Fire HD to ramp B&N NOOK HD pressure is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.
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