Legal

With the distinct possibility that no one from Random House will be put on the stand in the Apple ebook pricing trial, the documents depicting the publisher’s discussions of different business model possibilities with Apple could take on increasing importance. As Apple’s Keith Moerer testified on Tuesday, Random House was the one company he personally told that “Apple was willing to do an agency deal with Random House and that Random House was free to do business, including a wholesale model, without holdbacks with any other retailer that they might choose to do so.” Here are some of the key […]

A small number of communications from Apple’s late ceo Steve Jobs have taken on great import in the ebook pricing trial, in part because Jobs cannot testify to what he meant. As we reported, on Tuesday the government showed a January 14, 2010 reply to Eddy Cue that “was draft by Mr. Jobs,” as the government attorney put it. Regarding increased tiers with “pricing I think will push them to very edge and still have a credible offering in the market,” as Cue put it, the Jobs document reads: “I can live with this, as long as they move Amazon […]

After an afternoon of fairly dry probing of economic regression analyses, the real sparks in Wednesday’s Apple ebook pricing trial came at the very end of the day, in a battle over whether Madeline McIntosh of Random House will be called to testify. Originally the government was going to call McIntosh — as well as Random House ceo Markus Dohle — but they decided not to, and lead defense attorney Orin Snyder says they “never told us.” The government will accept McIntosh’s written testimony without questioning her, which technically leaves no opportunity for the defense to address her unless she […]

Hachette Book Group’s David Young was all dressed up and ready to testify on Tuesday after Macmillan’s John Sargent (sporting a second, red tie), but a last-minute switch put Apple executive Keith Moerer on the stand instead. Fortunately Young came equipped with a copy of George Pelecanos’s forthcoming October book THE DOUBLE. Among the day’s learnings — though ruled strictly not admissible in court because it is hearsay — is Moerer’s reminder that Steve Jobs “loved iBooks; in particular a book, Winnie the Pooh that was in color.” Jobs made a more meaningful appearance at the end of the day […]

Even Macmillan ceo John Sargent wears a suit and tie to court, we discovered on Monday as the Federal government’s trial against Apple resumed. We also learned that Rupert Murdoch called HarperCollins ceo Brian Murray to complain about Amazon’s press release announcing their 70% royalty for KDP authors – “Rupert [who] is still pissed at Amazon…. He wants to screw Amazon,” Murray wrote – and Barnes & Noble “first brought to our attention…the term agency model,” according to Murray. (Sargent’s written interpretation of the KDP announcement was that Amazon was “going to use the same model [as agency] to chase […]