

Apple contemplated illegally dividing the digital content world with Amazon - lleims
http://allthingsd.com/20120411/the-appleamazon-conspiracy-that-never-happened/

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smashing
In other news I contemplated illegally robbing a Las Vegas casino after
watching Oceans 11. Unfortunately, it wasn't a conspiracy as I just kept it
myself, until now. How do I get Peter Kafka's attention? My company needs
press, too.

~~~
burgerbrain
Don't you think that there might be a difference between a person
contemplating something, and an organization of people doing so?

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sp332
No. Unless you can prove that there was an actual conspiracy with intent,
there's nothing illegal going on. Corporations are allowed to fantasize just
like people (as long as there's no blatant fraud involved). Or did you mean
some other difference?

~~~
_delirium
> Corporations are allowed to fantasize just like people

That's not necessarily true, since groups of people fantasizing tends to
involve a lot more externalized things that might be evidence. If I dream at
night about bombing a federal building, I probably won't be arrested for it,
but if I meet weekly with a group of people where we discuss bombing federal
buildings and how we might go about it, that's starting to get a lot more
sketchy. Similarly, if there are corporate memos flying around and strategy
meetings/documents contemplating illegal activity, that's not necessarily
a-ok.

~~~
zobzu
I don't know how many times me and friends went about how to rob a bank.
Surely we should be set on fire.

More than that, Apple "contemplated" it, then decided against it, maybe
because, like "oh that doesn't sound legal, we can't do that" ? And, I don't
like Apple. But that's no reason.

------
zobzu
I contemplate killing all world leaders every next day due to such articles.
Yet, they're still alive. Does that mean I'm going to jail?

Are we that dumb yet? I bet in a decade or so, if things keep going the way
they are, it will be a reason to actually be jailed/fined. And that's scary.
Maybe I should stop contemplating ;-)

~~~
TheCowboy
We'll take you more seriously when you're in a position of power where you can
put these desires into effect with the wave of a pen.

There is a big difference between the inner thoughts people entertain, and
discussions and negotiations where people actively consider pursuing illegal
actions.

If you began meeting with friends about how to assassinate the president and
the authorities found out, I'm pretty sure you'd get a legitimate knock on the
door from the Secret Service.

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andr3w321
This article explains what exactly happened much better. It was much more than
just "contemplating to collude."
[http://money.cnn.com/2012/04/11/technology/apple-doj-
ebooks/...](http://money.cnn.com/2012/04/11/technology/apple-doj-
ebooks/index.htm?hpt=hp_t1)

Amazon forced publishers to sell most books at $9.99 -- a price that came in
below the cost of the books.

According to the DOJ, booksellers were unnerved by the discounted e-book price
structure Amazon launched in 2007. The publishers went to Apple in late 2009
to find a way to force Amazon to raise its prices. The iPad proved to be the
perfect tool to accomplish that.

The alleged conspiracy placed many books at so-called "agency pricing,"
putting them on the market for about $12.99 and giving Apple a 30% cut. About
three days later, Amazon allowed publishers to set their own prices, resulting
in higher prices on the Kindle as well.

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nextstep
Even though these "plans" were not enacted, this evidence could be damning in
Apple's larger fight. I predict that Apple and the publishers will be fined.
Hopefully the result of the DoJ's investgation is that vendors adopt a
wholesale model, which will probably drop the price of e-books.

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muchonada
Which is why Apple should've withheld dividends for another year and stock
piled enough cash for a hostile takeover of Amazon and taken over the world!

