Amazon suit settlement. Good news?

[Ted Nolan <tednolan>]

>Dear Kindle Customer,
>
>We have good news. You are entitled to a credit for some of your
>past e-book pur chases as a result of legal settlements between
>several major e-book publishers and the Attorneys General of most
>U.S. states and territories, including yours. You do not need to
>do anything to receive this credit. We will contact you when the
>credit is applied to your Amazon.com account if the Court approves
>the settlements in February 2013.
>
>Hachette, Harper Collins, and Simon & Schuster have settled an
>antitrust lawsuit about e-book prices. Under the proposed settlements,
>the publishers will provide funds for a credit that will be applied
>directly to your Amazon.com account. If the Court approves the
>settlements, the account credit will appear automatically and can
>be used to purchase Kindle books or print books. While we will not
>know the amount of your credit until the Court approves the
>settlements, the Attorneys General estimate that it will range
>from $0.30 to $1.32 for every eligible Kindle book that you purchased
>between April 2010 and May 2012. Alternatively, you may request a
>check in the amount of your credit by following the instructio ns
>included in the formal notice of the settlements, set forth below.
>You can le arn more about the settlements here:
>
>http://www.amazon.com/help/agencyebooksettlements
>

Obviously given the number of books I have bought on Kindle, getting
even $0.30 per would be nice from *my* point of view.

What does it mean from an industry point of view? Has Amazon broken
the publishing industry? If so, is that bad or good?
--
------
columbiaclosings.com
What's not in Columbia anymore..

[Raymond Daley]

Looks pretty phishy to me.

">Dear Kindle Customer,"

That'll be your dead giveaway.

[Howard Brazee]

I got that letter, and now one from Apple.

Neither asks us to link to anything, so I am just waiting.

--
"In no part of the constitution is more wisdom to be found,
than in the clause which confides the question of war or peace
to the legislature, and not to the executive department."

- James Madison

[malesheep]

It's Amazon telling its Kindle customers about the lawsuit and
probable settlement. What's phishy about that? Apple's doing it and I
suspect all the big ebook sellers are. It's only for certain
publishers.
Doug

[Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy]

dweller@(malesheep)tops.co.uk wrote in
news:l1jo781s8n4a5hubg...@4ax.com:

Offers of "free money" are a common phishing tactic, and Raymond's
not the only one to have that reaction to this particular one.
Mobilereads had a discussion on it.

But this is, apparently, the real deal.

--
Terry Austin

"Terry Austin: like the polio vaccine, only with more asshole."
-- David Bilek

Jesus forgives sinners, not criminals.

[Kurt Busiek]

On 2012-10-15 18:30:04 +0000, Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy

<taus...@gmail.com> said:

> dweller@(malesheep)tops.co.uk wrote in
> news:l1jo781s8n4a5hubg...@4ax.com:
>
>> On Mon, 15 Oct 2012 13:55:06 +0100, in rec.arts.sf.written,
>> Raymond Daley wrote:
>>
>>> Looks pretty phishy to me.
>>>
>>> ">Dear Kindle Customer,"
>>>
>>> That'll be your dead giveaway.
>>>
>> It's Amazon telling its Kindle customers about the lawsuit and
>> probable settlement. What's phishy about that? Apple's doing it
>> and I suspect all the big ebook sellers are. It's only for
>> certain publishers.
>
> Offers of "free money" are a common phishing tactic, and Raymond's
> not the only one to have that reaction to this particular one.
> Mobilereads had a discussion on it.
>
> But this is, apparently, the real deal.

That one is, yes, but there are apparently phishing spam efforts going
around claiming to be about the settlement, so people should be wary
anyway.

If all the links go to actual places you know, amazon or apple URLs,
then it's the real thing. If it comes from somewhere like
"vertismail.com," it's phishing.

kdb
--
Visit http://www.busiek.com -- for all your Busiek needs!

[Howard Brazee]

On Mon, 15 Oct 2012 11:35:04 -0700, Kurt Busiek <ku...@busiek.com>
wrote:

>That one is, yes, but there are apparently phishing spam efforts going
>around claiming to be about the settlement, so people should be wary
>anyway.
>
>If all the links go to actual places you know, amazon or apple URLs,
>then it's the real thing. If it comes from somewhere like
>"vertismail.com," it's phishing.

I would never hit any link from an e-mail like this - even after
verification. The companies will give us credit that we can get from
their normal sites (whenever they are ready).

[Kurt Busiek]

On 2012-10-15 19:23:58 +0000, Howard Brazee <how...@brazee.net> said:

> On Mon, 15 Oct 2012 11:35:04 -0700, Kurt Busiek <ku...@busiek.com>
> wrote:
>
>> That one is, yes, but there are apparently phishing spam efforts going
>> around claiming to be about the settlement, so people should be wary
>> anyway.
>>
>> If all the links go to actual places you know, amazon or apple URLs,
>> then it's the real thing. If it comes from somewhere like
>> "vertismail.com," it's phishing.
>
> I would never hit any link from an e-mail like this - even after
> verification. The companies will give us credit that we can get from
> their normal sites (whenever they are ready).

That too. Any refunds will be automatic -- you don't have to go sign up
for anything; they still have the info from your actual purchases.

[Ted Nolan <tednolan>]

Hmm.

I never had any doubt that it was valid and really from Amazon.

My question was if this means that "agency" pricing is gone and if
that's a good thing or a bad thing for any combination of readers,
authors and publishers.

[Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy]

t...@loft.tnolan.com (Ted Nolan <tednolan>) wrote in
news:ae3b2n...@mid.individual.net:

It's going, at any rate. At least some books that used to have
agency pricing no longer do at Amazon and B&N.

[William George Ferguson]

On Mon, 15 Oct 2012 08:04:40 -0600, Howard Brazee <how...@brazee.net>
wrote:

>I got that letter, and now one from Apple.
>
>Neither asks us to link to anything, so I am just waiting.

Here's the relevant Publishers/Imprints
Hachette/Orbit
HarperCollins
Simon & Schuster

Putnam Penguin was not listed, but since they were an integral part of the
whole Publisher movement back in 2010, I can't imagine they waren't part of
the suit (they actually pulled all their ebooks from Amazon in January
2010).

I've bought 491 ebooks from Amazon in the indicated time period. Some of
them are from the above three publishers, most (for a very large value of
most) aren't. If the Penguin Group (which includes Ace and DAW) becomes
part of the settlement, my number would skyrocket.

--
I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
(Bene Gesserit)

[Drak Bibliophile]

On 10/15/2012 9:04 AM, Howard Brazee wrote:
> I got that letter, and now one from Apple.
>
> Neither asks us to link to anything, so I am just waiting.
>

I got the Amazon letter and one from Kobo Books.

Didn't get one from Apple but I haven't purchased ebooks from them.

--
*
Paul Howard (Alias Drak Bibliophile)
*
Sometimes The Dragon Wins!
*
--------
*

[Carson Chittom]

To be clear, if you're eligible and don't do anything, you don't get a
"refund"; you get[1] a credit at the place where you bought the ebooks
with which to buy more things at that retailer. If you register, you
can opt to recieve a real refund check, which I did.

This is something like the fifth class action settlement in the last
seven or eight years I've been part of the settlement class. I won't
get much money, I'm sure, but I go on the principle that money in my
pocket is better than money in some company's pocket, no matter what the
amount. And I can spend it other places than at (in my case) Amazon.

[1] Assuming the judge approves the settlemenet in February.

[William December Starr]

In article <XnsA0ED74FF45A...@69.16.186.7>,

Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy <taus...@gmail.com> said:

> Offers of "free money" are a common phishing tactic, and Raymond's
> not the only one to have that reaction to this particular one.
> Mobilereads had a discussion on it.
>
> But this is, apparently, the real deal.

Some years back I repaid a loan made to me by a friend. The logistics
of it were that I left a check for her in an envelope tacked to the
bulletin board at MITSFS, which we both frequented, and when I sent
her an email notifying her about it it was *so* hard to resist using a
subject line like "US$2500.00 WAITING FOR YOU!!!!"

-- wds (to this day, I sort of wish I had...)