E-Book Settlement approved by DOJ launches Amazon Kindle Fire HD on fire

A New York federal judge approved a e-book settlement case on Thursday accusing publishers of conspiring to raise e-book prices as WSJ reports. Judge Denise Cote has approved the e-book price-fixing settlement proposed by the Department of Justice. The three publishers, Hachette, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster being sued for collusion and price-fixing will now have to negotiate new contracts with e-book retailers, including Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Apple.

The approved e-book settlement now force publishers to negotiate new contracts with e-book retailers, like Apple, Barnes & Noble and Amazon. The new contracts will give the power to set prices back to the retailers, the so-called wholesale model. The publishers will be barred from engaging in selling e-books on the so-called agency model, where they set the prices and split the proceeds with the retailer, for two years, according to the dbw report.

Judge Denise Cote characterize e-book publishing as new industry trend and essentially said "too bad" when approving the deal, while noting the "birth of a new industry is always unsettling."she said, "It is not the place of the court to protect these bookstores."

Amazon's Kindle and Barnes and Noble Nook was the exclusive e-book distributors to its vast consumers but with the released of Apple's iPad iBooks it levels the playing field. The e-book settlement announcement in April received negative reaction from publishers and booksellers over the deal could devastate bookstores. However, E-book market consumers, thriving indie authors and Amazon praised the settlement.

The approved E-Book settlement was a big day for Amazon, as it announced the celebrated release of its next generation of Kindle Fire HD tablets and e-readers. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos introduced yesterday all-new lines of Kindle products and the much awaited Amazon's Kindle Fire HD 8.9" 4G LTE release date on November 20 that would compete with iPad. Kindle Fire HD 7" is said to be the world's most-advanced 7" tablet, with a stunning HD display, plus the same exclusive Dolby audio, dual stereo speakers, the fastest Wi-Fi, and 16 GB of storage. For e-book readers it features Bimodal reading—where you listen to an audiobook while the text is highlighted in front of you.

Also read: Amazon Kindle Fire HD vs Goggle Nexus 7 Analysis