From: Ann Shumelda Okerson <[log in to unmask]> Date: Wed, 2 Dec 2015 20:39:39 -0500 And so it begins again: did Apple violate anti-trust law or not? The Authors Guild, the nation’s largest and oldest society of professional writers, discussed the benefits of competitive e-book pricing in a friend-of-the-court brief filed today with the Supreme Court of the United States. The brief, filed jointly by the Authors Guild, Authors United, the American Booksellers Association, and Barnes & Noble, bolsters ongoing advocacy efforts by the Authors Guild and Authors United and asks the Supreme Court to review a decision by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in U.S. v. Apple, which found that Apple violated antitrust law by coordinating with major U.S. book publishers to influence the price of e-books. In the brief, the author and book industry groups argued that the government’s focus on Apple’s allegedly anti-competitive activities was misplaced, because Apple’s conduct, in fact, enhanced competition by increasing e-book output, the number of e-book titles, and the number of e-book distributors, which led to technological improvements in the e-book market and enhanced freedom of expression and access to e-books. https://www.authorsguild.org/industry-advocacy/authors-guild-files-brief-affirming-benefits-of-competitive-e-book-economy/