Apple

U.S. District Court judge Denise Cote has denied both Apple’s and publishers’ move to dismiss a civil class action suit that alleges Apple and major publishers colluded to set eBook prices.

Follow this PDF link to download a copy of the 56-page decision.

Hagens Berman managing partner Steve Berman is the lead counsel in the class action suit against Apple and publishers. He had this statement: “We look forward to uncovering additional evidence in the discovery phase of this litigation … We litigated this case because we strongly believe that consumers were harmed by Apple and the publishers’ tactics and we will not settle without an effective plan to repay consumers for their losses.”

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Launch a social media campaign that will build your brand and deliver results in our online Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting June 7. Speakers include Abigail Cusick (Bravo Digital), Gregory Galant (Sawhorse Media), Alex Leo (Thomson Reuters Digital), Jim Tobin (Ignite Social Media), and many more. Read the reviews.

Readers, writers and publishing professionals can share their thoughts about the Department of Justice’s lawsuit filed against Apple and publishers over eBook prices.

According to The Tunney Act, “members of the public have an opportunity to comment on the proposed settlement before it is accepted by the court.”

If you want to share your thoughts, Dystel & Goderich Literary Management posted information about how to contact the DOJ. Your submissions will be archived–the literary agency also noted that “written comments received from any person to be filed with the court and published in the Federal Register.”

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In a speech at the Brookings Institution entitled “Promoting Competition and Innovation Through Vigorous Enforcement of the Antitrust Laws on Behalf of Consumers,” acting assistant attorney general Sharis A. Pozen defended the Department of Justice’s decision to pursue legal action against five publishers and Apple.

The speech seemed to reference Amazon, without ever naming the company. Here’s an excerpt: “At its heart, this case is about protecting competition, not competitors.  And most importantly, it is about lower eBook prices for consumers.  As I stated when we announced this action, our proposed remedy demonstrates that the antitrust laws are flexible and can keep pace with technology and a rapidly changing industry.  Indeed, our settlements with the three publishers have a five-year term with a two-year ‘cooling off’ period, representing a  desire to balance the need to ensure competition is restored in this important and evolving market, while not inhibiting its growth and innovation.”

Pozen will resign this week as the DOJ’s acting antitrust chief, and she outlined her division’s recent antitrust actions, ranging from AT&T’s efforts to buy T-Mobile to price fixing problems in the car parts industry to the eBook lawsuit. In all these cases, she made it clear that “the division is prepared to litigate and win” these legal actions.

The Department of Justice has sued Apple and publishers for allegedly colluding to set eBook prices. Apple, Macmillan and Penguin will fight the suit in court; HarperCollins (statement here), Simon & Schuster and Hachette (statement here) have settled with the government.

In court documents, DOJ attorneys alleged that Apple and five major publishers engaged in a “substantial” conspiracy as they set up the agency model for eBook pricing–including deleting emails “to avoid leaving a paper trail.”

Macmillan CEO John Sargent has decided to fight the suit. Read his letter here: “Other publishers have chosen to settle. That is their decision to make. We have decided to fight this in court.”

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Amazon’s digital sales grew 29% for Q1 2012 compared to Q4 2011, according to a new report from intelligence company eDataSource. The report, which estimated of the sales of both iTunes and Amazon’s digital business as part of its new e-commerce monitoring service, found that  iTunes sales grew 2% during the same period.

eBookNewser has more: “While Amazon’s business appears to be growing faster in these numbers, the report points out that iTunes sales still are 3.5x higher than Amazon’s digital sales volume domestically. In addition, the report found that iTunes customers spend 61% more than Amazon digital customers.”

eDataSource CEO Carter Nicholas stated: “iTunes was a key driver in hardware and overall sales for Apple.  They built a great lead and a very sophisticated ecosystem where it is easy to buy. That shows in terms of the magnitude in total sales for iTunes and the amount spent per person.  Amazon and others are behind but showing growth as their ecosystems become more robust and complete.  29% growth from the previous quarter is an impressive number.” Read more

Reports are circulating that Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins Publishers and the Hachette Book Group will consider settling investigations into eBook price fixing in the United States and Europe.

The Wall Street Journal has the story: “While the settlement terms haven’t been finalized, early indications suggest they could have broad repercussions for the fast-growing e-book market. A settlement would likely involve tearing up contracts the publishers signed with Apple when it first introduced the iPad tablet computer in 2010, according to the people familiar with the matter.”

A settlement would likely allow Amazon to set their own eBook prices, which publishers have resisted in the past. According to the reports, Apple, Pearson and Macmillan are reluctant to agree to settlements.

Free iTunes U courses created by Stanford University and Open University have been downloaded 50 million times through Apple.

Apple unveiled the iTunes U app, bringing a new wave of readers to the content. Below, we’ve linked to the ten most popular free courses on Open University. You can also see our list of 10 iTunes U courses for writers and readers.

Check it out: “The Open University’s 52 courses on the app add to the University’s extensive material on iTunes U which in another European first, has now seen more than 50 million international downloads, with over 40,000 new downloads each day. Our most popular course on the iTunes U iPad app, The New Entrepreneurs, has over 100,000 active subscribers, with another six of our courses having over 50,000 subscribers each.” (Via Jose Afonso Furtado)

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With the release of iBooks 2, Apple is proving that it wants to be the place for interactive books.

Yet for now, when it comes to creating interactive kids books, publishers are often forced to create apps because many features won’t actually work in books sold in the iBookstore.

Digital publishers Ellen Jacob and Kirk Cheyfitz have had to release books as apps to do the things they have wanted to do.

Fast Company has the story: “If you want to sell your book in Apple’s iBookstore, you have to create it on Apple’s iAuthor platform, but then you are only allowed to have video and links in your book (unless those links lead to Amazon’s store, then fuggedaboutit). If you design it so readers can interact with it and have it do all the things that Jacob and Cheyfitz wanted Bats!and Horse Magic to do–both were created on gaming platforms; Bats! on Unity, Horse Magicon Corona–it goes into the app store.”

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Mountaineer Hilaree O’Neill is getting ready to climb Mount Everest with an iPad.

The Colorado mountain climber plans to do so by following the path of famed hikers Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, the first documented climbers to make it to the top. While Hillary and Norgay had to use a pen and paper to document their 1953 expedition, O’Neill has an iPad to chronicle her trip.

National Geographic has more: “Ensconced in a protective case, an Apple iPad will give O’Neill a journaling device that also stores music, movies, and e-books. The iPad’s solid-state data storage drive makes it usable at altitudes where spinning hard disk drives (common in laptops) have been known to fail.”

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Apple revealed that it sold three million new iPads since the updated version was released last Friday. Will this translate to more iBooks readers?

Senior VP of worldwide marketing Philip Schiller had this statement: “The new iPad is a blockbuster with three million sold―the strongest iPad launch yet.” eBookNewser will show you what happens when you drop a new iPad.

Besides iBooks, the new iPad contains an updated version of iPhoto, complete with journal-writing tools for writers to create detailed records of a trip or experience. Follow this link to explore free iTunes U courses for the iPad as well.