Wednesday, February 20, 2013

"BREAKING NEWS" from Huffington Post! LINKS provided - 3 Independent Brick and Mortar Bookstores are taking Amazon and the so-called Big 6 Publishers to Court OVER DRM Protected EBOOK files!

NEWS FROM THE HUFFINGTON POST BY ANDREW LOSOWSKY - COPIED AND PASTED FOR YOUR INFORMATION.

Time to level the playing field here! 3 Brick and Mortar Bookstores are taking Amazon AND the Big 6 Publishers to court in an ebook lawsuit suing against DRM lock on ebooks monopolizing the market for the KINDLE ONLY with the intent on putting the Brick and Mortar Bookstores OUT OF BUSINESS!
About time, I say!

This article below has been COPIED AND PASTED FROM THE HUFFINGTON POST written by Andrew Losowsky, AND BOTH the original article AND  Lawsuit can be accessed at this link provided:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/20/drm-lawsuit-independent-bookstores-amazon_n_2727519.html?utm_source=Alert-blogger&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Email%2BNotifications#slide=1358620

I ask you PLEASE VISIT THIS LINK provided and follow Andrew Losowsky via Twitter, and on The Huffington Post under Books. That is an excellent source of information about books! I love following books there!

I want to share this article with ALL of you, and I have my own thoughts written AFTER this copied and pasted article. To read the FULL LAWSUIT, please go to the link. Here's what Andrew Losowsky wrote:

Three independent bookstores are taking Amazon and the so-called Big Six publishers (Random House, Penguin, Hachette, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster and Macmillan) to court in an attempt to level the playing field for book retailers. If successful, the lawsuit could completely change how ebooks are sold.
The class-action complaint, filed in New York on Feb 15., claims that by entering into confidential agreements with the Big Six publishers, who control approximately 60 percent of print book revenue in the U.S., Amazon has created a monopoly in the marketplace that is designed to control prices and destroy independent booksellers.
The complaint centers on digital rights management, or DRM, the technological lock that prevents consumers from transferring any ebook they buy on an Amazon Kindle onto, say, a Nook or Kobo ereader.
DRM comes with all ebooks sold by the major publishers, with the exception of Macmillian's Tor and Forge imprints, and it means that if a consumer decides to switch to another company's ereading device, he or she would lose access to any already purchased ebooks. DRM used to be a feature of digital music sold on iTunes, until Apple abandoned the practice in 2009.
The bookstores making the complaint are the Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza, based in Albany, N.Y., Fiction Addiction in Greenville, S.C., and Posman Books of New York City, though the suit states that these stores are suing on behalf of "all independent brick-and-mortar bookstores who sell e-books."
Alyson Decker of Blecher & Collins PC, lead counsel acting for the bookstores, described DRM as "a problem that affects many independent bookstores." She said the complaint is still in the process of being served to Amazon and the publishers and declined to state how it came about or whether other bookstores had been approached to be party to the suit.
"We are seeking relief for independent brick-and-mortar bookstores so that they would be able to sell open-source and DRM-free books that could be used on the Kindle or other electronic ereaders," Decker explained to The Huffington Post by telephone.
Such a move would lead to a reduction in Amazon's dominant market position, and completely reshape the ebook marketplace.
A spokesman for Fiction Addiction declined to comment as legal proceedings are ongoing. The other plaintiffs and Amazon did not respond to a request for comment. Update: A spokesman for Amazon said that they do not comment on active litigation.
The case comes against a backdrop of a Department of Justice lawsuit against Apple and five of the Big Six publishers over ebook price-fixing, a move that was widely seen as benefiting Amazon's dominant position among ebook retailers. Four of the publishers in that case have since settled with the Justice Department.
Though the independent booksellers' complaint is likely to be popular among many who follow the book industry, the three plaintiffs face a huge battle against such major players. Still, Decker said, "We wouldn't have filed it if we weren't hopeful [of winning]."
A copy of the class-action complaint is embedded below:

To read the Lawsuit that was filed, please click on the top LINK I have provided. The ENTIRE lawsuit is on that page.

To be honest, I've been waiting for something like this to happen! FINALLY! 
Yes, if we want to purchase a DIFFERENT reading device, we LOSE OUR BOOKS we have already purchased, (and HOW MUCH MONEY have we spent at Amazon? IF you own a Kindle or Kindle Fire) unless we keep that device, too, or use an APP designed to read OUR Amazons' purchased books. Once we purchase from Amazon, that is the ONLY device we can read our books on. There is NO switching back and forth between ANY OTHER E-READING DEVICE, which is wrong! That keeps us OWNED BY AMAZON! As a matter of fact, I have told many people that "Amazon owns me!" They do! My entire ebook library is there, then I end up shopping for other things out of convenience AND SHIPPING COSTS which have just increased, too!

In MY opinion, another reason they keep these books as a DRM is SO YOU "DO SHOP AT AMAZON", to KEEP us a customer of theirs, and theirs alone. They can set the price of ebooks of what WE "MUST" PAY, which is NOT cheap. MOST ebooks are selling at $12.99 OR HIGHER. Amazon and the Publishers have been reluctant to go OVER that amount, but DID FLIRT WITH IT FOR A WHILE until the PREVIOUS LAWSUIT ABOUT PRICE SETTING was taken to court with 3 Publishers, and the final 4 Publishers that had not YET been taken to court at that time has 'just' been settled, which I found out on Saturday, February 17th, 2013. Please watch your email associated with Amazon in the event you receive a refund of monies resulting from that lawsuit. The last lawsuit that went through, I received an email telling me I had a CREDIT! I did. It happened to be $12.99 from any and all ebooks that I had purchased from those 3 Publishers. Since then, I HAVE seen Amazon reluctant to go OVER $12.99, BUT THEY DO NOW! I should clear this up - the books that DO seem to go OVER that price-point are the OTHER Publishers that are now being taken to court. They want $14.99 PER EBOOK! (Sometimes the ebook costs MORE than the physical book! I REFUSE to purchase a digital file when it costs MORE than the physical book!) I have seen prices up to $19.99 for an ebook, specifically J K Rowlings for "The Casual Vacancy"! Currently, the NEW going rate seems to be going up to $14.99 for an ebook. I HAD to draw the line!

Personally, in MY own purchasing of ebooks, I will NOT go over $9.99. I do not feel ANY computer file is WORTH ANY AMOUNT OVER $10. That cuts out a LOT of Best Sellers, New Releases, popular books, the list goes on! Almost EVERY book you see on every post I do every Sunday of the NYT Top 15 Best Sellers are ALL $12.99 OR MORE, unless Self-Published by an Independent Author, or if the Publisher has not priced it extremely high, (who seem to be the Publishers that have already gone to court) which is NOT OFTEN. I think the pricing of ebooks is and ALWAYS has been RIDICULOUS! I've complained about this over and over in my article I post on Sundays. 

Once purchased, then, as the article states, and as you ALL KNOW, we are stuck with using Amazon's provided hardware or APPS to read them on. I never thought this was fair. 

WE have spent OUR MONEY for a book, shouldn't we be able to read it anywhere? On ANY device we want to? If we bought the physical copy of the book, we CAN read it ANYWHERE! I've HAD to give in to the fact that this is what comes with ebook territory, but maybe NOT any longer after this lawsuit goes to court, OR if they settle OUT of court.

I foresee this lawsuit WINNING, in MY opinion! I don't see how it could not. 

Amazon is going to have a LOT of work to do in making ALL the ebooks available to ALL ereading devices once this lawsuit goes through. The Kindle IS the #1 ereading device, as it almost HAS to be IF you want the latest and greatest of Independent Authors, especially! ONLY Amazon, which reaches SO MANY CONSUMERS, MORE SO THAN ANY OTHER E-SELLING Bookstore, has the ability to self-publish and sell Indie Authors' works, besides Smashwords, and how many people know about them? Not many at all.

SMASHWORDS, in my opinion, is the PERFECT EXAMPLE of how an ebook should be sold! It offers EVERY reading device download available! Bloggers have seen this site, as MANY Independent Authors use this site to first publish and sell their work, then eventually move on to Amazon as they are the ONLY place available for Self-Published books to be sold . If there are Readers out there that are not familiar with Smashwords, here is the LINK to go there: www.smashwords.com. Check it out. There is a very long list of ALL ereading devices available today to choose to download your book onto. Then, in the future, if you go back to that site, in the event you have purchased a DIFFERENT EREADER, YOU CAN DOWNLOAD THAT BOOK AGAIN! That is the BEST example "I" think Amazon should follow suit on!

Anyway, we'll have to watch how this lawsuit progresses! I'm SURE they'll most likely settle out of court, unless it is pushed further to make ebooks available for ALL devices, then I believe it WILL go to a judge. We'll see. 

Hope I informed you well. Any comments?

2 comments:

  1. I never spend more than $3 on an eBook and I've only actually purchased a few. I mostly get some of the free titles made available. I still really prefer print books, to be honest. I do agree that Amazon has a monopoly and it should be more like Smashwords. I also own a Sony Reader (which I won back in 2009), but still wanted a Kindle so I could get the free books. I won my Kindle too. =O) I certainly am not in a position to buy one.

    Thanks for sharing, Laurie. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

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  2. Hi Michelle!
    Wow! You are a LUCKY person!!! You won "2" ereaders! Wow!!! Some people enter contest after contest trying and NEVER win! I wish I had YOUR luck! Yes, they ARE expensive! I bought mine, but I saved and saved and saved! It took about 6 months to buy the first one, and a year to buy the Fire for this last Christmas for my hubby! Plus, I happened to get it on a day when it was $50 off! I got the large screen, the 8.9", but ONLY paid $50 more than for the 7"! I lucked out there!
    I also ONLY buy at $3.99 and under, too. 'Ocassionally' I have paid a little more if I REALLY WANTED to read a book, but that is a TREAT! ONE time every 6 months or so. Most ALL of my ebooks are free, too. We know our Authors we LOVE, so as long as we follow them, they usually have a FREE day here and there! Thankfully! Or else I would not have it!
    I DO hope this lawsuit happens. I don't see why it would not, either.
    It's about time!!!
    Yes, Smashwords is the PERFECT example, isn't it! I think so! That is the first format I thought of! Hey - maybe Smashwords will become famous! LOL!!!
    Thanks for commenting!
    Laurie

    ReplyDelete

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