Justice Dept. Investigates E-book Industry Over Price Fixing

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ImThat1Guy

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Jeebus publishers, you shouldn't be making more off eBooks. You should make exactly the same. Take regular price, subtract printing/shipping/whatever, and there you go. Everyone wins, except maybe people working at printing places.
 

nurgletheunclean

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Who cares. Let them charge as much as they want for the damn things, Just because all Ebooks would cost more doesn't mean people will buy them. Last time I checked there's a whole lot of free stuff to read on the internet already. "When I tell people I just saw a movie, the book snobs say ohhh but the book was much better, I say, you know what I liked about the movie...No reading, and I was done in 2 hours." --Jim Gaffigan
 

jellico

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[citation][nom]jimmy-bee[/nom]Eric Holder is a criminal and needs to go to jail, Fast & Furious.[/citation]
That's funny, I was just thinking the same thing. E-book price fixing... really? That's the priority for the "Justice" Department?
 

cumi2k4

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back then when there's no ebook, the publisher will tell us that the cost of books is high due to printing, stocking and other overhead. What would they say now?
Caught with their pants down, eh?
 

may1

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The big question here is whether these company actually made a formal agreement to fix prices together.
It seems more likely, that the agreement was a tacit one, and reasons of high ebook price being the result of value of intellectual property in these books, to which n publishers have any incentive to undercut its competitors, since they are a cost and effectively a monopoly.
 

Kryan

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"buy an expensive kindle and save money in the long run with cheaper prices per book"

a year later: "BOOM! OWNED!"
 

jjtober1

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Its so stupid when you can buy a paperback that has been read once and have it shipped across the country for cheaper than an e book. Then when you finish your e book what can you do with it? Can't borrow it to a friend or anything. Stupid publishers, almost makes pirates seem like the good guys.
 

mrmike_49

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I refuse to pay the high prices for ebooks - rather go to the library and check out the book.

Until the ebook price falls to less than 75% of paperback price, I will never buy an ebook

(except at Baen Books - ebooks $15 when hardback comes out, $6 when paperback comes out)
 

alyoshka

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I haven't bought an eBook until now, but I must have read a 100 PC magazines in the PDF format. So I really don't know what the price is all about.
For Novels and fiction , I think Hardbacks and paperbacks are fine.
Comics??? Well, those too, the old one I have are all printed on paper, collector stuff, but the new freaky ones with the new style of graphics, cheap glossy paper, I prefer the PDF version easy to chuck away.
 

itchyisvegeta

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If you don't like it, then don't buy it. Supply and Demand. The demand for ebooks has gone up because of the rise of tablets. If people boycott them, the price will go back down. Just like when Netflix tried to raise their prices late last summer.
 
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Having worked in a bookstore for years, and having been on technology for two decades, it's likely the printing and shipping costs of a traditional book have been replaced with the higher costs of technology. Server space that need to be upgraded frequently, bandwidth costs, a technology staff with higher salary costs, publishers reworking ebooks to the latest technology standard and updates which could change frequently (print books can just get reprinted), etc. Have you ever checked out the cost for making a *good* app or for converting an ebook so it looks good on-screen for each device? It can be expensive to develop. If you're familiar with cost-benefits, it could take a lot more sales to recoup costs when a price is too low. If I don't like an ebook price, then I either don't buy it, borrow it from the library; or, buy the print version (new or used) which no one can take from me and I can still read if I lose power or my charger for a few days.
 

jsc

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[citation][nom]booklover[/nom] Have you ever checked out the cost for making a *good* app ...[/citation]
Well then, price the app appropriately.
 

blackened144

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Sort of off topic but when I first got my ereader a few years ago I thought I would buy the last Harry Potter book since I had never read it.. After searching for 2 days and not finding a place to buy it, I found out that JK Rowling doesnt release her novels as ebooks because they promote piracy.. So in order to read it on my brand new ereader, I had to pirate it.. I would have been willing to pay real money to buy it but was unable.. Anyway, back on topic, that same Christmas my sister gave me book 3 in a 4 book series.. I had already read book 1, and I thought, great, I can buy book 2 on my ereader for cheap and get caught up before I read the book my sister gave me.. The ebook was $2 more than the paper back online.. I remember asking myself, how the hell is that even possible?
 

blackened144

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[citation][nom]booklover[/nom]Having worked in a bookstore for years, and having been on technology for two decades, it's likely the printing and shipping costs of a traditional book have been replaced with the higher costs of technology. Server space that need to be upgraded frequently, bandwidth costs, a technology staff with higher salary costs, publishers reworking ebooks to the latest technology standard and updates which could change frequently (print books can just get reprinted), etc. Have you ever checked out the cost for making a *good* app or for converting an ebook so it looks good on-screen for each device? It can be expensive to develop. If you're familiar with cost-benefits, it could take a lot more sales to recoup costs when a price is too low. If I don't like an ebook price, then I either don't buy it, borrow it from the library; or, buy the print version (new or used) which no one can take from me and I can still read if I lose power or my charger for a few days.[/citation]
I use the Stanza PC app to convert ebooks.. It will read about 20 different formats and will allow you to export any source file to just about any format you want too.. Stanza was also the best ereader app available for iOS.. Much better than Amazons Kindle app, but then Amazon took over Stanza when it bought Lexcycle and is not going to release a version compatible with iOS5... So I just use the PC app to convert..
 
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