“It also creates a cartel of authors and publishers—the Books Rights Registry—operating with virtually no restrictions on its actions, with the potential to raise book prices and reduce output to the detriment of consumers and new authors or publishers who would compete with the cartel members. Indeed, the agreement is even arguably unlawful on its face because it constitutes price fixing by horizontal competitors—namely, the Rightsholders, who are agreeing collectively on a mechanism for setting the highest possible prices to be charged for their works.”

The Author’s Guild has responded, calling Amazon “hypocrites” and citing their attempts to use the Kindle file format and DRM to create a monopoly in the e-books market. The big difference, however, is that Amazon is making a business play (albeit a distasteful one) on their own, and they’re not being granted their monopoly by the courts.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-30684_3-10335976-265.html

Amazon is coming out swinging.