Apple shows spine in e-book trial (New York Post) Apple, as expected, came out swinging against the Justice Department in the first week of its e-book price-fixing trial — and may have even scored some points with the judge. --- Is the e-book judge starting to see things Apple's way? (Fortune) A subtle but potentially important shift took place Thursday in the Manhattan federal courthouse where U.S. District Judge Denise Cote just wrapped up the first week of the three-week civil antitrust case known as U.S.A. v. Apple. --- Apple takes smart but much-needed gamble in e-book spat (Reuters) Apple is taking a smart but necessary gamble in...

Do publishers deserve special treatment from anti-trust courts? Paid Content reports on antitrust experts who said no at a New York book event this week: “There’s never been a defendant sued for antitrust who didn’t think their market was special,” said Chris Sagers of Cleveland State University, adding that “agency pricing”  (a commission-style pricing system used by the publishers to check Amazon) is just another word for price-fixing. This is basically in line with the arguments the Department of Justice made in its response to public comments, and its arguments in the hearings concerning whether the proposed settlement should go through; Judge Denise...

I’m a little late, but I wanted to bring up just one story that popped up between the times I was at The Digital Reader and here. I’ve been following the saga of RoyaltyShare founder Bob Kohn at length with some interest and more than a little amusement. (That's Kohn in the photo to the right.)  Though he doesn’t necessary have a direct stake in the case’s outcome, Kohn has nonetheless been filing verbose comments, legal motions, and even a comic book (as a legal motion) in an attempt to head off the Department of Justice’s proposed agency pricing settlement....

If you’re interested in any new tidbit of information about the legal matters surrounding the publishers’ and Apple’s implementation of agency pricing, here’s an interesting one for you. Publishers Weekly reports that Denise Cote, the judge in the class-action suit against Apple and the publishers, has ruled that Walter Isaacson, the the author of the Steve Jobs biography, does not have to divulge unpublished notes and interview materials to the law firm serving as the plaintiffs in the case. The law firm wanted to see the notes to pick them over for anything that would lend support to the...