Attorney and RoyaltyShare founder Bob Kohn today filed two motions: one to intervene in the DoJ’s settlement with three publishers for the purposes of an appeal, and one seeking an immediate stay of the Settlement pending an appeal to the Second Circuit. “Consumers of e-books and the public generally will be substantially and irreparably injured in the absence of a stay,” Kohn argues. “Once the Final Judgment takes effect, and the government succeeds in ‘evaporating’ the pro-competitive effects of the Defendants’ conduct, the damage to the public will be irreversible.”
Kohn’s public comments were addressed—and deemed unpersuasive—in Judge Cote’s September 5 approval of the settlement, and a subsequent 25-page Amicus brief was rejected. A five page amicus, delivered as a comic, was accepted on September 4, though apparently ignored by the court.
Kohn argues, that, “like millions of consumers,” he has a “vital interest in competitive markets for e-books and the e-book readers and systems that support them.” That vital interest necessarily includes an interest not in what the government contends are low prices, but rather in efficient prices for e-books.”
