Apple fined $450M for inflated E-book prices

[viking60]

While Apple is honorably fighting against making backdoors to iPhone: they have lost the battle of keeping your money for overpriced e-book's.

Apple has conspired with several book publishers to increase the price of e-books that were sold on its iBooks Store.

As part of the settlement Apple was told to pay $450 million. Since then it has tried to appeal the settlement; however, Apple's appeal has been rejected by the US Supreme Court, so once again, Apple has been told to pay $450 million, except this time, it is final.

It is hard to see how Artists and writers are making money through Apple's solutions; it requires lots of volumes so only Apple gets a profit.
It has been reduced to marketing for future concert tours. In the old days artists and writers made money on selling traditional books and records.

The distribution through Apple's systems has seemingly reduced that income while Apple hardly can complain.

Normally the state takes the profit in these cases in the shape of fines etc but not so here:

$400 million to be paid back to consumers
$20 million to various US States who sued originally
$30 million in legal fees

More here

[R_Head]

On this I side with Apple. They have the right to overcharge whatever they want. Is the user's responsibility to find the best deal. If the Apple ecosystem is a rip off get off it. Nobody is forcing the user to buy overprice merchandise. They are gullible for buying it. As far ripping the artists? No sympathy either. The artist are cunned and cheated with the recording industry and passing the loss of their profits to the consumer is uncalled for. Is up to the artist to find the best deal and if they got suckered in on a contract.... oh well, is life and no sympathy either.

Sad to say, I side with Apple on this one. They can run the store any way they want. If they lose costumers? So be it, no sympathy either for not offering a good value.

There is no case on this one.

[viking60]

I second the free choice of not having to buy anything from Apple.

But the problem is that there was no such free choice since they conspired with the publishers.

It is like when I stole cookies in the old days and my little brother caught me I had to offer him a cookie too to make sure he did not tell. Partners in crime so to speak.

The free choice would have been to buy a normal book of course without the i's and the e's in front of it - but not all book are published like that anymore - I think.

In any case; the publisher's would control that too and thus Apple......