
Judge agrees that Apple was complicit in fixing price of e-books - jamesbritt
http://www.techradar.com/news/computing/apple/judge-agrees-that-apple-was-complicit-in-fixing-price-of-e-books-1154204
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grinnick
Regardless of whether or not her opinion turns out to be unwavering/correct, I
find it crazy that a judge would expose her bias before the trial starts. Is
this common?

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mosqutip
The article did mention that it was "unusual". I find it to be unprofessional.
It seems justices like to express their personal opinions on big tech cases;
perhaps it's a move for free publicity?

Either way, it doesn't sit right with me.

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rayiner
It wasn't a "personal opinion." It was a pre-trial opinion ("opinion" in the
formal sense of a judicial decision) on the case. A judge will issue something
like this during a bench trial (trial in front of a judge rather than a jury)
basically as a way of telling the parties: "based on the evidence I've seen so
far I'm leaning towards ruling this way." It's a way of giving the parties an
idea of which way the wind is blowing to guide settlement discussions before
trial.

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doctorpangloss
Take a look at Bob Kohn's hilarious _amicus_ brief for an idea of just how bad
this could go for the DoJ:

<http://www.scribd.com/doc/104906877/Kohn-Amicus>

Apple will probably lose the district court case, but that has as much to do
with geography and Judge Cote as it does with actual law. When they appeal to
the Supreme Court, which they will, they will get the trial they wanted—a
trial on whether Amazon, not Apple, committed antitrust violations by selling
e-books below marginal cost in order to capture the market.

(To be clear, Apple's legal strategy should not be asking the DoJ whether it
thinks Amazon practiced predatory pricing. Amazon certainly did, but the DoJ
can always say, "No.")

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jcrites
What is the marginal cost of a digital good? The cost to download it one more
time? It seems like the marginal cost to produce one more copy of an existing
digital good is close to zero.

Books and music and other similar works certainly have a large fixed cost to
produce: the opportunity cost of the creator's time; the technology or
equipment involved. The producer might choose to market the work, which incurs
further cost (but it's not marginal). However, once the work is created, can
it really be said to have a marginal cost beyond the cost of digital
distribution?

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msvan
There is a marginal cost to Amazon. They're paying the publishers a certain
amount for every copy sold. And if they're selling a copy for less than they
bought it for, they are selling it below the marginal cost.

