Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Cases Publishing, DOJ May fate of Digital Rights Management

In the days after the announcement of the U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit against the publishers accused of colluding with the Apple (AAPL) to increase e-book prices, a lot of the U.S. publishing industry decamped to England for the annual book fair in London. Not surprisingly, the lawsuit is the main topic of conversation at cocktail parties and booths around the Earls Court Exhibition Centre in particular speculation about whether the DOJ suit could eventually encourage the publishers to consider The reducing their need for digital rights management (DRM) controls to keep e-book reader from passing a copy of the title in friend.Publishing-industry futurist, individuals are usually far from the real world calculations crunching accounting department publishers' long argued that inhibits e-book DRM changes and prevent e-book small retailers from entering the market and competing with Giant distributor (read: Amazon). In London this year, said Lorraine Shanley, Market Partners Consulting Publishing International, more mainstream publishing executives talk seriously about ending DRM restrictions. "It allows individual publishers more flexibility with their own content and make it available directly to consumers," said Shanley. "And it will allow consumers to access content without starting such a device is locked, girded." Some analysts say wishful thinking. In recent years the music industry has removed almost all restrictions of DRM, has not done much to diversify the digital music market. 

Apples are dominant, and Apple set the price. "For consumers, Amazon restore market forces can lead to preferred among retailers on the street," said Michael Wolf, vice president of technology news site GigaOm. "Man Amazon is merit or not in the long term, which is yet to be seen." Most trade show attendees London, and indeed many others in the business say the case is playing into the hands of the Amazon and his boss, Jeff Bezos. Since its debut turn, Amazon.com (AMZN) to play the long game, losing money at the same razor (on the device) and razor blades (e-book) in an attempt to establish a dominant market position type in your e-book authorized by Apple in digital music. The company sells hardware kindle almost no income, and also lost money in the first few years carried by the release of the new price and major bestsellers at $ 9.99, while paying the publisher $ 15 or more for many titles.For e-books published by Hachette , HarperCollins, and Simon & Schuster lived three houses DOJ, Amazon is easy to start cutting retail prices again. It can increase its market share from Amazon out of more than 60 percent of the overall e-book market and put further pressure on Barnes & Noble (BKS), which controls 30 percent. But it can also weaken the thin operating margins as Amazon's investment in long-term projects such as tablets, the Amazon Prime free shipping clubs, and cloud computing initiatives, Amazon Web Services. Analysts believe Amazon will start cutting yet. "It was a very calculated move to the Amazon," said Colin Sebastian, an analyst at RW Baird. "Their view that Apple might not stomach losing a whole lot of money on e-books and Barnes & Noble can not afford. They will do whatever they can at this stage of the e-book and turn to drive market share as possible. "Will Amazon have to be careful about cutting prices dramatically that publishers seek to maximize their remaining dough left. Publisher may, for example, the "window" e-book publication delay them for a few weeks after the release of the more expensive hardcover. Simon & Schuster and Hachette try it on the first day of the wholesale price of e-books, memoirs of Sarah Palin and Edward Kennedy. (This technique, however, can alienate customers and cause an increase in e-book piracy.) Packaging Publishers are also able to experiment with e-books and hardcover, or they may withdraw from the DRM technology of e-books for the Nook, Barnes & Noble may hold more attractive to customers. However, "it is difficult to see how the publishers find a way around the market Amazon, Amazon blows unless somehow," said Bill Rosenblatt GiantSteps consulting firm's overall strategy of Media Technology Strategies.Whatever Bezos, Amazon will not be able to cut the price of e-books published by Penguin and Macmillan until the case is resolved and the DOJ can linger. Said Geoffrey Manne, an antitrust expert at Lewis & Clark Law School, the case could take years to complete, partly because Apple has deep reserves of cash to spend on litigation. Meanwhile, the e-book market will likely continue to increase rapidly. "In fact, the main problem with the suit, so that the technology," Manne said, "is that at Forrester, the market may have changed so much that it will be irrelevant. '

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