Tuesday, September 11, 2012
A Time For Caution
When a company wins a major victory in the courts, there is a desire to press advantage. Sometimes, however, one should be careful about moving too quickly. This appears to be one of them. A Federal judge handed Amazon.com a major victory in the pricing of e-books last week, and Amazon could move to squeeze just about everyone out of e-book merchandising. It would be foolish to do so. The specter of monopoly would rise swiftly, and judges might not be as favorable a second time around. While Amazon has a court decision and public perception on its side for the moment, it could be seen as a bully. Amazon can sell e-books for whatever price it sets -- even at a loss, it would seem. Book publishers and authors have a right to worry. The judge, however, understood the paradigm shift that the internet has caused and that publishers can no longer rely on the traditional paper-based economic model.
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