Just days after a hearing in Washington D.C. Timothy D. Cook, Apple’s CEO, will be in Manhattan, once again in the courtroom. This time Mr. Cook’s trip into the hallowed halls of law involve some potential funny business between Apple and five big publishers. There are allegations that Apple worked in cahoots with these publishers in order to try to control pricing on e-books.
Apple officials feel that the current case against them is pointless – indeed, there won’t be any ruling that comes directly from Cook’s time in court. Still, perhaps the fact that publishers tried to fix prices to begin with is emblematic of the shambles that their industry is in right now.
The Demise of Publishing
In recent years, publishers have struggled mightily. Their difficulties are mainly owed to the rise of e-books and the widespread usage of digital devices. Publishers used to control what was printed and what wasn’t – after all, writing a book is only half of the battle. Marketing, distribution and other factors used to fall under the purview of publishers. But these days, online outlets like Amazon allow you to publish your book using their service, and then only charge you a small fee per every transaction in which a customer purchases it – a far cry from the way publishing used to work.