Penguin will pay $75 million in damages and “costs and fees to resolve all antitrust claims relating to eBook pricing”–settling with 33 state attorneys general and consumers in a suit led by Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro.

The suit revolved around allegations of price fixing with the agency model for eBook pricing. The publisher issued a brief statement:

Penguin has also committed to the State Attorneys General to abide by the same injunctive relief as previously agreed in a separate settlement with the Department of Justice. In anticipation of reaching this agreement, Pearson had made a $40m provision for settlement in its 2012 accounts. An incremental charge will be expensed in Pearson’s 2013 statutory accounts as part of the accounting for the Penguin Random House joint-venture.

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Novelist Stephen King has made headlines for the second time over his decision not publish an eBook edition of Joyland.

In May 2012, King revealed that his Hard Case Crime book would not have a digital edition: “We’re going to hold off on e-publishing this one,” he said. As the Junte 2013 publication date neared this week, King told The Wall Street Journal:

I have no plans for a digital version … Maybe at some point, but in the meantime, let people stir their sticks and go to an actual bookstore rather than a digital one.

From now until June 1st, 7,500 libraries around the world have joined the Big Library Read–allowing millions of patrons to check out and read a single digital book simultaneously.

OverDrive and Sourcebooks have teamed up to share The Four Corners of the Sky by Michael Malone. As libraries struggle to pay higher fees for some eBooks and some publishers limit the number of check-outs permitted for a book, this campaign could have an important impact. Here’s more from the release:

In addition to ongoing Facebook and Twitter (#BigLibraryRead) conversations during the pilot, Sourcebooks will host a live Facebook chat on May 23 with author Michael Malone.  Many of the largest library systems around the world are participating in the Big Library Read, including: Queens Library (NY), the U.S. Navy, Melbourne Library Service (Australia), Toronto Public Library (Canada), London Libraries Consortium (United Kingdom), and the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality (South Africa). The Big Library Read is the first event of its kind and may be replicated in the future to reach wider and more targeted audiences.

Ambulant has created an ergonomic eReader case called the Wingo. They hope to raise $55,000 on Kickstarter to cover the costs of manufacturing the product.

We’ve embedded a video about the project above–what do you think? Here’s more about the project from Dr. Anthony D. Andre:

The Wingo is a simple but elegant solution to the growing dilemma of how to hold tablet devices without undue effort, strain or fatigue, especially when using only one hand. Its “wings” virtually hold onto the user’s hand, negating the need for the user to pinch the device and carry the burden of the weight with the finger tips. I think that it represents a valuable ergonomic option for frequent users of such devices.

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How much did eBook prices change after five major publishers agreed to the agency pricing model?

The Department of Justice shared its “findings of fact and conclusions of law” (PDF link) in a long court document this week. The documents included a number of charts created by economics professor Richard Gilbert showing how eBook prices increased once major publishers began selling digital books at the same price across different marketplaces.

Above, you can see the price increases charted by publisher. The lengthy court document also contained emails from major publishing executives, Apple leaders and other people who helped craft the agency pricing model.

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The advocacy organization AARP will publish a new series of original eBooks, teaming up with  RosettaBooks.

Here’s more about the new partnership:

RosettaBooks has partnered with the AARP to publish a series of original eBooks from the nonprofit organization. RosettaBooks will also help the AARP with various distribution. Together they will publish books on a variety of subjects including: caregiving, brain health, and driver safety. The first titles in the new line published by RosettaBooks are slated to be released this year.

If publishers drop digital rights management controls on eBooks, will piracy increase? One prominent publishing example saw “no discernible increase in piracy.”

Macmillan’s Tor imprint dropped its DRM over one year ago, and Tor UK editorial director Julie Crisp wrote an essay looking back at the imprint’s progress since then. The article included commentary from authors and this key passage:

Protecting our author’s intellectual copyright will always be of a key concern to us and we have very stringent anti-piracy controls in place. But DRM-protected titles are still subject to piracy, and we believe a great majority of readers are just as against piracy as publishers are, understanding that piracy impacts on an author’s ability to earn an income from their creative work. As it is, we’ve seen no discernible increase in piracy on any of our titles, despite them being DRM-free for nearly a year.

The sex-blog Fleshbot has started a new eBook imprint for erotica called Fleshbot Fiction.

Fleshbot Fiction has so far added the steamy works of talented authors such as Daisy Danger, William O., Howard Raymond, Louise Lagris, Olivia Glass and Louise Friday, and will post more diverse, fetish-specific stories on a regular basis as the site grows with its audience. The low, fixed price points will encourage customers to discover more new authors and their searing stories.

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Penguin has proposed to drop the agency eBook pricing model in the European Economic Area following similar deals from Simon & Schuster, Harper Collins, Hachette, and Holtzbrinck last year.

AppNewser has more about the deal, from the European Commission press release:

In the proposed commitments, Penguin offers to terminate existing agency agreements and refrain from adopting price MFN clauses for five years. In case Penguin would enter into new agency agreements, retailers would be free to set the retail price of e-books during a two-year period, provided the aggregate value of price discounts granted by retailers does not exceed the total annual amount of the commissions that the retailer receives from the publisher.

Confused by the crowded marketplace for digital reading devices? Reader Rocket will help you sort it all out with detailed comparison charts of major eReaders.

AppNewser has more:

The site lets you search based on different attributes that an eReader offers and sort listings based on which qualities are most important to you. Say for example, that you care most about battery life and compare eReaders based on the amount of battery life they offer. For example, the Kobo Glo has the most battery life in eReaders with 55 hours, ahead of the Amazon Kindle Touch, which has 30 hours. But Amazon’s device beats the Kobo in price at $96 compared to $146. Got it down to two choices? The site will show you head-to-head comparisons and summarize the pros and cons of each devices, so that you can find the device that is right for you.