Sir Salman Rushdie attacks US investigation into ebook selling

Sir Salman Rushdie claims an investigation into price fixing of ebook sales by Apple and publishers will only result in destroying the income of writers and further encourage the belief that consumers can get everything for nothing.

Sir Salman Rushdie Photo: NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images

By Richard Alleyne - The Telegraph - 11 Mar 2012

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The Booker prize winning novelist said that the current system by which publishers set the price at which electronic books sell creates "fair pricing that allows authors to make a living".

But plans by the US Justice Department – and the European Union – to break up the system on competition grounds will "destroy the world of books", he claims.

The probes on both sides of the Atlantic, focus on a controversial system known as the "agency model" which was adopted by booksellers and Apple.

This allows publishers, including Britain's Penguin, Harper Collins and Hatchette, to set the prices at which books are sold on the internet and for the retailer – in this case Apple's iBookstore – to take an agency commission.

It is contrary to the free market model used by Amazon where the retailer buys in bulk and can sell for any price it wants.

The system has kept the price of e-books relatively high compared with hardback books and maintained the income for publishers, bookstores and writers.
But it could contravene antitrust laws as it could produce cartels and "restrictive business practices".
Full story at The Telegraph.