“Every single member of my family on both sides was exterminated. Both of my parents were in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. And it is precisely and exactly because of the lessons my parents taught me and my two siblings that I will not be silent when Israel commits its crimes against the Palestinians.”
– Norman Finkelstein, American political scientist and author, whose parents are Nazi Holocaust survivors.
Last month the U.S. Department of Justice filed an antitrust suit against Apple and 5 major publishers – Hachette, Harper Collins, MacMillan, Penguin and Simon & Schuster – alleging collusion in e-book pricing and sales models. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, acting Assistant Attorney General Sharis A. Pozen and Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen made the announcement at DOJ headquarters in Washington, D.C. It’s surprising to see that digital publishing – a truly 21st century technological phenomenon – has fallen under the glare of the nation’s top law enforcement official. But, it’s equally serious – and perhaps even warranted – as the number of publishing outfits diminishes. It appears the 5 publishers named in the suit most feared the Amazon giant.
According to the suit, filed in the Southern District of New York, the 5 publishers “feared that lower retail prices for e-books might lead eventually to lower wholesale prices for e-books, lower prices for print books, or other consequences the publishers hoped to avoid.” It also mentions “deflating hardcover prices” and charges that the “Publisher Defendants were especially concerned that Amazon was well positioned to enter the digital publishing business and thereby supplant publishers as intermediaries between authors and consumers.”
When the 5 publishers couldn’t force Amazon to stop selling e-books at such sharply discounted prices, they conspired to increase those very same e-book prices and thereby limit competition in the sale of digital books. To accomplish their goal, the publishers teamed up with Apple, which had the same desire to restrain retail price competition over e-books.”
The lawsuit further alleges that Apple wished to raise the profit margin for e-book retailers above what Amazon and its competitors had been making. The suit also claims that prior to negotiating with Apple, executives with the 5 publishers engaged in a series of meetings, telephone calls and other communications where they “agreed to act collectively to force up Amazon’s retail prices and thereafter considered and implemented various means to accomplish that goal, including moving under the guise of a joint venture.” One e-mail stated that “without a critical mass behind us Amazon won’t ‘negotiate,’ so we need to be more confident of how our fellow publishers will react…” It also charges that publishers sought to destroy evidence and conceal their communications, showing they knew their activities were illicit.
This conspiracy would make the Enron scoundrels proud. And, the 5 publishers almost sound like the “five families;” a.k.a. the mafia. It’s distressing for writers, whose first love is the written word, to see the creative world run smack into the brutality of corporate politics. There are mixed feelings. On one side, no decent writer wants to see their publishing choices limited to just a handful of conglomerates. On the other is the leeriness of government interference in the arts. But, there’s a reason it’s called show business. It’ll truly be interesting to see how far the DOJ will go with this case.
Filed under News
Survivalist Tip: It almost goes without saying that honey is one of the healthiest things you could consume. Obviously, I said it anyway, but what the hell! For thousands of years, honey has been used to treat everything from arthritis pain to yeast infections. I don’t have arthritis and the closest I’ve come to a yeast infection is bad breath; so I can’t speak for these claims. But, honey also can be used to aid the body in healing from cuts, burns and wounds, as it possesses natural anti-bacterial properties to prevent infection and reduce inflammation. It’s probably best known for easing the symptoms of sore throat, but it also helps to limit the effects of a hangover. Here are some other health benefits:
Honey is truly a universal health aid – next to chocolate and a dog. Just don’t call anyone “honey bear” at the start of the new Baktun. You’ll likely end up worse off than anything honey can cure.
Filed under Mayan Calendar Countdown
If today is your birthday, “Happy Birthday!”
Singer – songwriter Judy Collins (Both Sides Now, Amazing Grace, Send In the Clowns) is 73.
Author Bobbie Ann Mason (In Country, Spence and Lila) is 72.
Singer – songwriter Rita Coolidge (Higher and Higher, We’re All Alone, You, All Time High) is 67.
Singer – songwriter Ray Parker Jr. (Ghostbusters) is 58.
Guitarist Steve Farris (Mr. Mister) is 55.
Singer – songwriter Tim McGraw (Live Like You Were Dyin’, Grown Men Don’t Cry, If You’re Reading This) is 45.
Filed under Birthdays
1883 – Buffalo Bill (William F. Cody) staged his first Wild West show.
1884 – Construction began on the first skyscraper in America; the 10-story Home Insurance Building located on the corner of LaSalle and Adams in Chicago, IL. It was demolished in 1931.
1926 – The Ford Motor Company becomes the first in the U.S. to adopt a 5-day, 40-hour work week for its automotive factories.
1931 – The Empire State Building in New York City was dedicated.
1960 – The Soviets shot down an American U-2 plane piloted by the C.I.A.’s Francis Gary Powers. Seventeen months later, the Soviets exchanged Powers for Russian spy Rudolf Abel whom the CIA had exposed.
1971 – Amtrak went into service.
Filed under History
“I really feel quite hypocritical about hairy-legged males who will never be pregnant and never have that life-altering decision to make being the ones writing the rules for the opposite gender as though we had nothing to do with their condition.”
– Texas state Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, not shying away from his pro-choice stance in a heated primary.
Filed under News
When is 99¢ the most appropriate price for a writer’s work? When it’s just a short story? An essay? An entire novel? I’ve noticed a number of books offered on Amazon for 99¢, usually from first-time writers trying to get their name into circulation. If you invested $1,000 to publish a novel yourself, you’d have to sell more than a 1,000 novels just to break even. This issue reminds me of a question that came up years ago, when I worked for a major bank in Dallas – how does human resources decide salaries and bonuses? What criteria do they use to determine how much someone should be paid? If you’ve kept up with the recent financial implosions on Wall Street and around the country, you’ve surely wondered how someone could justify a 7- or 8-figure salary.
So, what price do we place on a writer’s work? Should the writer set that standard? Or, should the market? And, there again, what criteria does “the market” utilize? As publishing companies struggle to survive in a rapidly changing market, so do the writers who essentially keep them in business. We all want to be paid what we think we’re worth, but that’s always subjective.
How often have you read a book or watched a movie and regretted paying for it? It went on too long; it had too much filler. People often make it through a fiction novel and think it would have been better off as just a short story. Other times they feel a non-fiction book could have fit into a magazine article. Agents and editors often will try to construct a book around a single good magazine piece. Anyone submitting a nonfiction proposal probably should have published several excerpts well in advance, as a form of vetting the work.
Writers always come up with good ideas – I have a notebook filled with great synopses – but it’s a different matter to flesh it out into a coherent story that will hold the reader’s interest. Still, you really can’t make a decent living selling your stuff for 99¢. People may buy it, but unless you’re already independently wealthy, gainfully employed, or more than willing to suffer for the sake of your art, I don’t think you’ll be too happy with how things turned out.
Survivalist Tip: Fending off these allergies is just a small price to pay for a happier life in the next Baktun. The Earth is trembling quietly beneath our feet, causing the pollens and dust particles to float up into our sinus cavities. While some scientists attribute this to fracking, our pets, farm animals and the insects know better. It’s really a sign warning of the upcoming shift in the Earth’s axes. That means at the start of the “New Baktun,” dust particles and pollens will be especially potent; making everyone sneezing and coughing like they’re in one big country and western bar, or the women’s room of a topless bar. One of the best all-natural remedies to quell such a vicious reaction from the immune system is apple cider vinegar.
You may think of banjos and coal mining when you think of apple cider vinegar, but it’s a proven defense against sinus and chest congestion. For centuries vinegar has been used for countless purposes: making pickles, killing weeds, cleaning coffee makers, polishing armor and dressing salads. Anything that can kill weeds and clean armor can also definitely wipe out chest congestion. Fermented with apples, however, it becomes especially potent. As I’ve discussed before, apples are already one of the healthiest foods you can consume. During the fermentation process, the sugars in both the vinegar and the apples are broken down into alcohol. And, one of the main ingredients in the final product is acetic acid. Again, if acid can peel the corrosion of your car battery, mucus in your nasal cavities doesn’t stand a chance. But, because of this high acid content, apple cider vinegar isn’t a casual beverage. It’s strictly medicinal. Don’t sit down with a warm mug of it and a box of chocolates to watch your favorite crime drama! You’ll have plenty of time for that after things settle down.
Filed under Mayan Calendar Countdown
If your birthday is today, “Happy Birthday!”
Actress Cloris Leachman (The Last Picture Show, A Brand New Life, The Mary Tyler Moore Show) is 86.
Singer Willie Nelson is 79.
Actor Gary Collins (Born Free, The Iron Horse, Roots, The Sixth Sense) is 74.
Actor Burt Young (Excessive Force, A Family Matter, Rocky series) is 72.
Actor Perry King (A Cry in the Night, Kaleidoscope, The Lord’s of Flatbush) is 64.
Filed under Birthdays
1789 – George Washington was inaugurated as the first president of the newly-formed United States.
1812 – Louisiana became the 18th state admitted to the U.S.
1903 – Victor Records made its first Red Seal recording. The premiere disk featured Ada Crossley, an opera contralto.
1939 – The first railroad car equipped with fluorescent lights was put into service. The train car was known as the General Pershing Zephyr.
1939 – Baseball’s ‘Iron Horse,’ Lou Gehrig, played his last game with the New York Yankees.
1939 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first chief executive to appear on TV, when he spoke at the opening ceremonies of the New York World’s Fair in Flushing, NY, on WNBT in New York.
1945 – Adolf Hitler and his mistress, Eva Braun, committed suicide in their bunker in Berlin.
1947 – The name of the Boulder Dam was changed back to its original name, Hoover Dam.
1948 – The United States and 20 Latin American nations signed a charter establishing the Organization of American States (OAS).
1964 – The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ruled that all TV receivers should be equipped to receive both VHF channels and the new UHF channels.
1975 – Saigon – and all of Vietnam – fell into communist hands, marking the unofficial end of the Vietnam War, as the U.S. withdrew completely.
//
Filed under History
