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Don't forget Apple got caught red handed price fixing ebooks.

by post_break 5y ago

aaaaaaaaaaab 5y ago
Don’t forget Apple got caught red handed fixing engineers’ salaries by colluding with Google.
- echelon 5y ago
  Call Apple what it is. An evil, overpowered marketplace. Anti-stallman, anti-web, anti-computing freedom, anti-engineer, anti-privacy, spy panopticon. Poser.
  - askonomm 5y ago
    I wonder why HN folk are so bitter about Apple. Did you guys send your resume and they never got back to you or what's the reason? It seems just odd to me to hate on something to this level.
    - echelon 5y ago
      Apple is turning computing and ownership into renting and serfdom. Why don't you see that? The only reason I'd work for Apple is to send the horrific things they do to my representatives and the Department of Justice. Emails. Meeting notes. Admissions of anticompetitive behavior. Not a bad idea, but I think I'll have more impact elsewhere.
      - GiorgioG 5y ago
        > Apple is turning computing and ownership into renting and serfdom. Why don't you see that? Amazon, Google & Microsoft are just as guilty of this with their cloud platforms.
        echelon 5y ago
        Eh, you kind of get it. https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Famgopoly https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Famgopoly They all need to be broken up in the areas where they use platform powers to ensnare, absorb, and destroy. Each of these companies could be decent companies, but they're allowed to abuse their positions and wreak havoc on multiple industries.
        tick_tock_tick 5y ago
        No, they are not. Apple is going further and using good branding to avoid consumer backlash.
        pessimizer 5y ago
        "Just as guilty" is the opposite of a defense. You're literally in a thread condemning Apple for conspiring with Google right now. Who are are you attempting to convince of what by saying that Google is "just as guilty?"
        zerd 5y ago
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism
      - mcdoogal 5y ago
        Until Apple is my only option for computing, I don’t see how this is happening
  - justapassenger 5y ago
    > Anti-stallman Personality cult is never a good thing. It's equally not healthy to be obsessed with Stallman as it's with Jobs.
    - pessimizer 5y ago
      Yes, it's believing in things that's a problem, not what in particular you believe in.
- zsmi 5y ago
  To be fair, there were a number of defendants in that law suit. And they're probably just the ones that got caught. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Tech_Employee_Antitrust_Litigation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Tech_Employee_Antitrust_L... "The defendants are Adobe, Apple Inc., Google, Intel, Intuit, Pixar, Lucasfilm and eBay, all high-technology companies with a principal place of business in the San Francisco–Silicon Valley area of California."
moogleii 5y ago
That whole debacle was an interesting, if illegal, counter-attack against Amazon: https://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/apple-claiming-virtue-e-book-price-fixing-case https://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/apple-claiming-v... The meat of it: "As Apple prepared to launch the iPad, it offered a deal to the six biggest publishers in the U.S. The publishers could set the retail prices of e-books sold by Apple, up to a cap of $14.99, and they would get seventy per cent of the sale price. But if any other retailer was selling a given e-book at a lower price than the one a publisher had set, Apple could match it." Contrast that with Amazon which could set the retail price freely "often at or even below the original wholesale price. Amazon didn’t mind losing money on each sale, as long as the strategy helped sell Kindles and expand the e-book market."
mcphage 5y ago
That definitely worked out best for us. We all win when Amazon is the only significant ebook seller. The justice department cementing Amazon’s business position was a good thing that happened.

Don't forget Apple got caught red handed price fixing ebooks.

aaaaaaaaaaab 5y ago

Don’t forget Apple got caught red handed fixing engineers’ salaries by colluding with Google.

echelon 5y ago
Call Apple what it is. An evil, overpowered marketplace. Anti-stallman, anti-web, anti-computing freedom, anti-engineer, anti-privacy, spy panopticon. Poser.
- askonomm 5y ago
  I wonder why HN folk are so bitter about Apple. Did you guys send your resume and they never got back to you or what's the reason? It seems just odd to me to hate on something to this level.
  - echelon 5y ago
    Apple is turning computing and ownership into renting and serfdom. Why don't you see that? The only reason I'd work for Apple is to send the horrific things they do to my representatives and the Department of Justice. Emails. Meeting notes. Admissions of anticompetitive behavior. Not a bad idea, but I think I'll have more impact elsewhere.
    - GiorgioG 5y ago
      > Apple is turning computing and ownership into renting and serfdom. Why don't you see that? Amazon, Google & Microsoft are just as guilty of this with their cloud platforms.
      - echelon 5y ago
        Eh, you kind of get it. https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Famgopoly https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Famgopoly They all need to be broken up in the areas where they use platform powers to ensnare, absorb, and destroy. Each of these companies could be decent companies, but they're allowed to abuse their positions and wreak havoc on multiple industries.
      - tick_tock_tick 5y ago
        No, they are not. Apple is going further and using good branding to avoid consumer backlash.
      - pessimizer 5y ago
        "Just as guilty" is the opposite of a defense. You're literally in a thread condemning Apple for conspiring with Google right now. Who are are you attempting to convince of what by saying that Google is "just as guilty?"
      - zerd 5y ago
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism
    - mcdoogal 5y ago
      Until Apple is my only option for computing, I don’t see how this is happening
- justapassenger 5y ago
  > Anti-stallman Personality cult is never a good thing. It's equally not healthy to be obsessed with Stallman as it's with Jobs.
  - pessimizer 5y ago
    Yes, it's believing in things that's a problem, not what in particular you believe in.
zsmi 5y ago
To be fair, there were a number of defendants in that law suit. And they're probably just the ones that got caught. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Tech_Employee_Antitrust_Litigation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Tech_Employee_Antitrust_L... "The defendants are Adobe, Apple Inc., Google, Intel, Intuit, Pixar, Lucasfilm and eBay, all high-technology companies with a principal place of business in the San Francisco–Silicon Valley area of California."

moogleii 5y ago

That whole debacle was an interesting, if illegal, counter-attack against Amazon: https://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/apple-claiming-virtue-e-book-price-fixing-case https://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/apple-claiming-v... The meat of it: "As Apple prepared to launch the iPad, it offered a deal to the six biggest publishers in the U.S. The publishers could set the retail prices of e-books sold by Apple, up to a cap of $14.99, and they would get seventy per cent of the sale price. But if any other retailer was selling a given e-book at a lower price than the one a publisher had set, Apple could match it." Contrast that with Amazon which could set the retail price freely "often at or even below the original wholesale price. Amazon didn’t mind losing money on each sale, as long as the strategy helped sell Kindles and expand the e-book market."

mcphage 5y ago

That definitely worked out best for us. We all win when Amazon is the only significant ebook seller. The justice department cementing Amazon’s business position was a good thing that happened.