US: Indie bookstores revive the e-books controversy

Just days after it was announced Amazon was facing an investigation by Germany’s competition authorities, an antitrust lawsuit against the online retailer, and six of the largest book publishers, was revealed. According to reports, several bookstores in New York and South Carolina have filed a suit against Amazon and the “Big Six” book publishers for monopolizing the industry. The plaintiffs claim the publishers and Amazon have squeezed independent bookstores out of the e-books market thanks to e-books encoded with DRM, or Digital Restrictions Management technology, which restricts which programs and aps function with the e-book. Two New York bookstores, Posman Books and The Book House, as well as South Carolina-based Fiction Addition, have filed the suit against Amazon and publishers Random House, Penguin, Hachette, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins and Macmillan. The publishers all recently settled with the Department of Justice over a longstanding e-books price-fixing case. According to reports, if the plaintiffs are successful in the lawsuit – filed February 15 in the Southern District of New York – DRM specific to devices or apps on e-books could be essentially eliminated.

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