Amazon ready to rekindle e-readers!

Sometime ago, we reported on the price-fixing scandal that was allegedly directed by Steve Jobs of Apple Inc. to artificially drive up the price of e-books for the consumer. This was achieved in collusion with various big brand publishers who collectively exerted their influence on the Amazon brand, thereby ensuring a higher base price for e-books sold on their Kindle reader. 

In what seems like only the right thing to do (which does not mean that one is not a little surprised to actually see it happen!), Amazon has now stated in emails to members that Kindle customers are entitled to a purchase credit for transactions made on Kindle between April, 2010 and May, 2012.

The relevance of this time frame is that it correlates with the release of Apple's iPad tablet in 2010, for which Jobs et al. allegedly wanted to fix a price for e-books that kept them all happy, at the expense of the reading public. For those who saw Steve Jobs as nothing but an angel, albeit a brilliant one, well, a new face of unseemly greed raised its ugly head thus tarnishing the previously glowing halo.  It appears as a very cheap and trashy move from both a man and a company that are rich beyond the dreams of almost all others.

Back in September a federal judge upheld the settlement of three such publishers (HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster and Hachette) with the US Justice Department, and it was stipulated that they not only eliminate the unethical pricing fix put in place with Apple, but also that the publishers fund the credit now offered by Amazon. Quite right too! It is estimated that as much as $100M was bilked out of those unsuspecting e-book customers. 

"We think these settlements are a big win for our customers and look forward to lowering prices on more Kindle books in the future", said the Amazon Kindle team in their communication with their clients. 

The exact amount of the refund will await some legal ratification in February, 2013, but it is expected to be not much more than around the dollar mark for most eligible e-books purchased during the applicable period. The customer can have the amount applied to their Amazon account or if a refund is demanded, then this will be acceptable, says Amazon. 

Of course, the one thing missing from this positive move is Apple, who are refusing to settle and are set to go to trial on these charges in June, 2013. They will do so alongside the other two big publishing houses implicated, Macmillan and the Pearson-owned Penguin group. Given Apple's litigiousness of late (look at the ongoing global legal war they instigated against Samsung), I don't find the fact that they are going to trial to be any indication of innocence. 

They are richer than God's banker, so why not take one's chances and hope to spend one's way out of it? But one is forced to ask why three other big ticket publishers walked early, and wanted to settle out of court, if (a) there was no truth in the charges, and, (b) they could count on the weight and financial clout of Apple to stand behind them?

It smells dirty, and the fact that three out of five publishers settled out of court is by itself an admission of the alleged collusion. So do the others expect any of us to believe that only HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster and Hachette conspired to fix e-book prices, but the others were innocent?! Even given that it was the iPad that was at the centre of the need to raise prices across the board, to prevent Amazon-Kindle from undercutting them?

We can just hope that if found guilty, given the extra delay incurred in delivering refunds to clients who got screwed by refusing to settle and going to trial, that the court levies additionally punitive damages against the parties involved. 

Self-publishing is supposed to be a movement that is separated from the money-grabbing artistically bereft goals of major corporations, and the thought that a giant such as Apple (or the others) would attempt to tweak it to their advantage is totally disgraceful. It is not only artistically bereft, but rather it is equally as morally bereft if not outright bankrupt.

Now that's an interesting but hardly atypical irony: become ethically and morally bankrupt as part and parcel of the attempt to become even richer than God him/her/itself. One of the accounts is stuffed full to the brim, and the other is drained to the very bottom of the barrel. As Roger Waters sang in a classic old tune - "money.... is the root of all evil today" - sadly that truth seems to pervade even the supposedly independent world of self-publishing. As long as it's making money, corporate greed will always target it and start to eat it alive from the inside out. 

But we must rejoice at any exposure of such shenanigans that seek to use advances that sideline the traditional industry from actually benefiting from them, if not screwing the system completely. Ditto any positive outcome from that exposure which in this case means Amazon returning to being an amazing outlet for self-published works at an extremely competitive price point. That can only be good news, for both authors and customers alike!

EU is proud to say that our two books are available on Amazon-Kindle, and we are delighted that the dark shadow hovering over the Amazon brand due to the alleged Steve Jobs/Apple conspiracy is now evaporating. Cons, piracy......indeed!  
Kevin Mc