iBooks

DoJ says Steve Jobs email proves Apple’s guilt in e-book scandal

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 14, 2018

Things are really starting to heat up between Apple and the US Department of Justice over this e-book price fixing scandal. The DoJ filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple last year for allegedly conspiring with major book publishers to raise e-book prices.

And with the trial set to kick off in a few weeks, there's beginning to be a lot of activity between the two. Yesterday, a DoJ filing popped up that called Apple out for facilitating the price fixing. And today, a potentially damning email from Steve Jobs has surfaced...

DoJ calls Apple out for allegedly facilitating e-book price fixing

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 15, 2013

As you know, publishers Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin and Simon & Schuster all settled with the US Justice Department (DoJ) in an antitrust lawsuit the government filed against them and Apple in April 2012. In turn, DoJ is focusing on Apple now and, according to a new report, is calling Apple out for being a facilitator of an alleged price fixing related to electronic books sold on its iBookstore.

Furthermore, DoJ claimed it collected evidence that proves Apple was the "ringmaster" in the price fixing conspiracy...

Apple wins iBooks trademark case

Ed Sutherland ∙ May 9, 2013

A New York judge has thrown out a trademark lawsuit against Apple's iBooks service. A sci-fi and fantasy publisher had claimed Apple's use of the 'iBooks' mark would confuse consumers. In her ruling, U.S. District Judge Denise Cote wrote that Black Tower Press "offered no evidence" that consumers would misinterpret Apple's e-book service as a book publisher. In addition Cote said the publisher's image of a lightbulb emblazoned with the word 'iBooks' was distinctive enough to merit continuing the 2011 case...

Official: Apple’s boss Tim Cook to testify for four hours in e-books trial

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 13, 2013

This past Sunday, Bloomberg reported that Apple CEO Tim Cook may be required to testify in an antitrust lawsuit the United States Department of Justice filed against it and major e-book publishers over an alleged price fixing of e-books. Reuters confirms today that U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in Manhattan granted the Justice Department's request to compel Cook to sit for a deposition.

The Judge said the death of Jobs was a key reason in ordering the deposition. Cook will be testifying for four hours in the lawsuit, a risky move for the CEO and potentially damaging to Apple. The Cupertino company is now the main target of the suit after all named publishers had settled with regulators...

Tim Cook may be asked to testify in e-book pricing fixing suit

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 10, 2013

Apple CEO Tim Cook may be required to testify in an antitrust lawsuit the United States Department of Justice filed against it and major e-book publishers over an alleged price fixing of e-books. Cook's eventual testimony might be risky and could be potentially damaging to his company, now the main target of the suit after all named publishers had settled with regulators.

On the other hand, the CEO could take the opportunity to make a public case for a so-called agency model that the government claims has had anti-competitive impact. The agency model regulates the relationship between Apple and digital content owners who get to pick their iBook prices freely as long as they agree not to offer lower pricing to competitors than they do to Apple.

Business-wise, publishers prefer Apple's policy over Amazon's wholesale model where the online retailer sets prices as it sees fit, often hurting publishers' bottom line by engaging in selling books at a loss just to draw shoppers to its online store...

Apple exploring ways of letting users loan and resell “used” iTunes purchases

Ed Sutherland ∙ March 7, 2013

In a world of digital media, ranging from e-books to movies and music, consumers have often questioned the difficulty of loaning or selling their originally purchased items. In an exciting development, Apple has now developed a way to transfer digital content while also protecting the rights of the publisher.

In three patent applications filed in 2011 and 2012, Apple outlines a method similar to selling a house by transferring ownership of the front door keys, only for iTunes purchases. Driven by digital rights management (DRM), the process gives owners of apps, e-books, music and other digital items rights to loan and resell "used" items to other people...

Apple says iBooks has been downloaded over 130 million times

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 14, 2018

Following this morning's release of iBooks 3.1, which brought about expanded Japanese book support, Apple has posted a press release to make its move into the country's e-book game official.

The announcement includes further details about the Japan iBookstore launch, as well as quotes from Apple's SVP of Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue and various publishing firm executives...

iBooks gains Japanese iBookstore support, including manga and light novels

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 5, 2013

Apple this morning released iBooks 3.1, a minor update containing improvements for reading Asian language books and supporting paid books from the Japanese iBookstore representing many of the large publishers in the country, with content such as fiction, manga, light novels and more.

Previously, the Japan iBookstore only offered public domain content so it couldn't compete with local content stores from the likes of Kobo, Amazon and Sony.

Bloggers report iBooks 3.1 renders paid Japanese e-books nicely, along with the full character set and iOS Dictionary support, allowing users to highlight a word and pull its definition. Additionally, the books open right-to-left as they should so you can swipe right to advance through the pages.

Apple says the iBookstore in Japan now has "hundreds of thousands of books" available for purchase. This bodes well for Apple as to date, much of the e-book market in Japan has centered on graphical novels, such as manga...

Apple now a lone holdout in the e-book price fixing suit

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 8, 2013

Last September, three of the nation’s top five book publishers settled with The United States Justice Department (DOJ) over alleged collusion in the pricing of e-books, despite Apple crying foul and accusing Amazon of assisting the government's agenda. Following DOJ's deal with HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster and Hachette, Penguin followed suite in December 2012 and today DOJ announced that Macmillan has stricken a similar settlement with Uncle Sam, leaving Apple as a lone holdout in the suit...

Self-published works get a home on iBookstore ‘Breakout Books’

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

Apple has launched a new U.S. iTunes Store section dedicated to highlighting exclusive, self-published works from emerging talents. Sometimes, one has to expose oneself to books that cannot be found on The New York Times bestseller list. This section is aimed at surfacing cherry-picked content you'd otherwise have a hard time discovering. The move mirrors Amazon's self-published Kindle books and Apple says new titles will be added “as they begin taking off”...

EU ends e-book Apple probe, opening door to cheaper Kindle books

Ed Sutherland ∙ December 13, 2012

It looks like another win by Amazon against so-called "agency" pricing model employed by Apple's iBookstore and other digital bookstores. Following the lead of a US court, the European Union (EU) Thursday announced that the iPhone maker along with four publishers will relent after all.

Specifically, Apple and publishers reportedly have agreed to lower e-book prices on competing stores, including the Kindle store operated by Seattle-based Amazon. Apple, along with Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, Hachette, and Macmillan, signed the agreement because it wanted to avoid fines that could have topped an astounding $15 billion.

As part of the settlement, Apple's so-called "most-favored nation" clause - that barred publishers from offering lower prices on competing stores - gets suspended for five years...

Digital page turn? Patented!

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 17, 2012

If asked to single out a feature of iBooks that provokes most oohs and aahs, I'm sure you'd more or less unanimously opt for the page-turning effect. It didn't take long before other e-book apps and devices began mimicking Apple's animated skeuomorphism in iBooks.

The page-turning trick in various implementations has become a standard feature of Amazon's Kindle apps, Google Play Books software, Sony's recently released iOS app, plus a host of other social news readers and e-reading programs. And just like that, Apple's now been granted a patent for the feature, meaning the company basically owns the page turn...