I'm surprised that he doesn't address the effect of DRM on Amazon's infamous $9.99 pricing strategy. Part of the reason the government went after the publisher

I'm surprised that he doesn't address the effect of DRM on Amazon's infamous $9.99 pricing strategy. Part of the reason the government went after the publishers and Apple rather than Amazon, even though Amazon has a near-monopoly on ebook sales, is the they tend to believe that predatory pricing is inherently self-limiting, whereas cartels directly and immediately harm consumers. No one in the physical book retailing world would mark every hardcover in their store down to $9.99. Sure, it would drive a lot of customers into the store, but there would be no lasting value. Eventually they would be forced to raise prices and customers would go elsewhere. Amazon is only interested in selling ebooks at a loss because it establishes a Kindle monopoly. Kindle can only have a monopoly because DRM represents a huge barrier to entry. When they eventually raise retail prices to a sustainable level, DRM ensures that anyone with an existing Kindle library won't be as price-sensitive as someone who can easily decamp to a competing platform. If the publishers drop DRM now they remove the incentive for Amazon to engage in predatory pricing.