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So, these poor little publishing houses, innocent victims of those big bad wolves like Amazon and Apple? Makes me want to weep in my beer. What's the world coming to? 
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The point is that it is the reading public and the authors who are being screwed. Monopoly is not just a board game.
I was surprised to discover recently that Abe Books, which I had considered an alternative place to purchase, is, in fact, owned by Amazon. The modus operandi in media and publishing is the same as in the pharmeceutical industry, ad infinitum. Smaller companies are taken over and eliminated or assimilated, and
competition which is supposedly the heart of free enterprise is ceasing to exist.
I am flabbergasted by anyone
not concerned about the consolidation of the media and information industries into the hands of a few. Look around you to see what can happen to a nation when one person or a few actors monopolize the media. Look at the the danger wrought by Murdoch and Berlusconi for heaven's sakes and the methods these players employ once monopoly is a fact.
An article in this month's Atlantic analyzes the transition from
having a market society to
being market society. i don't know if it is online but this is a clue to the content
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...n_1424733.html
There are many things that I feel should not be entrusted to market forces but which are the province of citizenry via good government, among them the control of books and information media.
Others, formerly responsibility of government, now the province of business are: education, prisons, public transportation, affordable housing.
I suggest a close reading of the Atlantic article by Michael J. Sandel titled "What Isn't for Sale?"
One should not disregard that the one percent is wiping out the middle class which is the main factor for stability in any society. Look at the countries without a middle class and you will see what happens when the vast majority are poor and controlled by a small elite.
Poverty and joblessness not only lead to a greater crime rate it is anti-productive in every sense of the word.
Anyone fortunate enough to have a beer should indeed be weeping in it.