After keeping silent immediately following the Department of Justice's lawsuit on Wednesday both Apple and the Authors Guild reacted to the actions Thursday. Apple denied the charges and said the launch of the iBookstore helped to break “Amazon's monopolistic grip on the publishing industry" a company spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal.
Authors Guild president Scott Turow also used the word monopoly in his response, saying that low Kindle book prices “will last only as long as it takes Amazon to re-establish its monopoly. It is hard to believe that the Justice Department has somehow persuaded itself that this solution fosters competition or is good for readers in the long run.”
Turow, who in March wrote a much touted essay on why possible DOJ action against the publishers and Apple would be "grim news" went on: “by allowing Amazon to resume selling most titles at a loss, the Department of Justice will basically prevent traditional bookstores from trying to enter the e-book market, at the same time it drives trade out of those stores and into the proprietary world of the Kindle. The settlement provides a gigantic obstacle to Amazon’s competitors in the e-book business by allowing Amazon to function without making a profit, something that leaves that market forbidding to anyone else who might think of entering, and a bad business for those already there."
