Justice Dept. Investigates E-book Industry Over Price Fixing

[freggo]

It's Simple. Cost of physically making a mass produced CD less than $1. Retail then is $20 and up. Result... pirating.
Cost of 'making' an e-book compared to a hard copy... next to nothing. ask me to pay $15 for an e-version and I start looking for 'other sources' for my e-book
Despite what the movies tell us, greed is NOT all good !
Besides, I never read an e-book, don't intend too. Love the feel of an actual book in my hand, flipping the pages and sipping a tea, coffee or whatever. It's kinda like making love; no matter how life like they make these 3D displays the e-Nudes do not compare well to the real thing

 

[Skippy27]

[citation][nom]itchyisvegeta[/nom]If you don't like it, then don't buy it. Supply and Demand.[/citation]

Really moron? You are going to say it is a supply and demand correlation when we are talking about electronic files that can be created for every single person on the face of the earth in a matter of seconds the very instant they want to purchase the item.

Buy a clue and them come back to the discussion.

 

[the_crippler]

[citation][nom]Skippy27[/nom]Really moron? ....Buy a clue and them come back to the discussion.[/citation]

Well, Skippy, if we're going to resort to name calling, it's probably pointless to try and clarify what they were posting (as I understand it), but just in case:

In the literal sense, no, "Supply and Demand" might not be the best choice of words. How does, "Charge what the market will bear" work for you? What they were getting at is that there is a market for ebooks right now, and the publishers are setting the price that people are willing to pay. Take that demand away, and one of two things happens:

1.) They lower the price to encourage people to buy
2.) They decide that this whole ebook thing just isn't profitable enough for them and slowly phase it out.

So, choice of terminology was incorrect, but their point was hardly wrong. No need to act like a child.

 

[JermsMalibu]

Yea, I don't buy any e-books because it's absolutely ridiculous for them to cost what they do. They should be 1/2ish price of the real ones or something since there is no printing costs or anything like that. And they can spit out a billion files in the blink of an eye (yes, sarcasm but you get the point....well, most of you do) so there's no way it costs them more than a few pennies to make them. Yes, the writer/publisher needs paid, but just pay them the same amount as if it was a paper book. And e-books are tiny files so you can't complain about the HDD storage costs, or the internet costs, or any of that since it's negligable. I can buy my paper backs for $7.99 a lot of the time but then they want to charge $9.99 or more for the electronic copy? .....PASS.

 

[Guest]

@nurgletheunclean

Heavens forbid because we all know reading is no fun, what with having to imagine it and all....

 

[maestintaolius]

[citation][nom]the_crippler[/nom]Well, Skippy, if we're going to resort to name calling, it's probably pointless to try and clarify what they were posting (as I understand it), but just in case: In the literal sense, no, "Supply and Demand" might not be the best choice of words. How does, "Charge what the market will bear" work for you? What they were getting at is that there is a market for ebooks right now, and the publishers are setting the price that people are willing to pay. Take that demand away, and one of two things happens: 1.) They lower the price to encourage people to buy2.) They decide that this whole ebook thing just isn't profitable enough for them and slowly phase it out. So, choice of terminology was incorrect, but their point was hardly wrong. No need to act like a child.[/citation]
Well, "what the market will bear" is all fine and dandy so long as the market remains free. The issue is they're concerned Apple is using its dominant position with iTunes to collude with the publishers to price fix and block those who don't play along from entering the market, that's not something you're allowed to do. HarperCollins, Hachette Book Group, Macmillan, Penguin Group Inc., and Simon & Schuster Inc and Apple all plotted together to force Amazon to change it's e-book pricing and caused quite a big stink back in Feb. Of course, the public is too busy watching the kardashians and michael jackson trials to notice these kind of things.

 

[gm0n3y]

Finally. I'm so sick of eBook prices rising. When I bought an eReader a few years ago I could buy books for ~50% less than the paperback cost. This seemed reasonable since the cost was so much lower and I couldn't resell or lend the book out and I'm tied to a company's platform if I want to keep the book. But now prices are usually either the same as paper books or up to ~30% more expensive. I'm back to buying paperbacks again, which I don't want to do.