This is NOT a US-specific process!

This is _exactly_ the same process people need to go through to visit the Schengen countries if they need a visa. Except that for most countries, one actually has to travel to a consulate rather than being able to send the application through mail.

Grad students studying in the US have been buying & selling "International Edition" textbooks for ages. When I studied in a masters program some years ago, a majority of Chinese students used International Edition books that they had presumably purchased from another international student within the US who no longer needed the book anymore. These books were generally of lower quality than the regular edition US textbooks (i.e., soft cover, sometimes black and white instead of color, etc.), but the words & graphs were all the same, and for a huge discount you couldn't go wrong. After seeing so many of my classmates using these international editions, I began purchasing them myself (and selling them when I finished the course).

It never occurred to me that selling these could possibly be grounds for a major fine. To me, this is just as bad an idea as region coding on DVD's or disallowing Americans from purchasing pharmaceuticals abroad.

It's an interesting point. But the reason is that to my knowledge, there _wasn't_ any price fixing prior to ebooks. I believe that publishers have always sold physical books to retailers using the wholesale model, and then leave it up to the retailers to set the price paid by customers. As long as the publishers didn't conspire to set those wholesale prices collectively, then there's no price fixing. There may have been some 'tacit' collusion (in that they don't formally agree upon prices, but that they follow each other like airlines), but that's generally not illegal in the US.

The issue in this case is that there _is_ evidence that the publishers collectively decided to adhere to the same pricing scheme. That is illegal.

This was such a blatant price-fixing scheme among the publishers that it's surprising to me that it took the DOJ this long to take action. That said, based on what I've read I'm not completely convinced of the extent to which Apple was involved in this. Yes, they agreed to the new agency pricing model, but it seems to me that they could try to argue, "Hey -- the publishers came to us with this idea. We didn't know they wanted to go that route to reduce competition and put pressure on Amazon! Honest!" But if there's a paper trail mentioning Amazon, I think Apple is toast.

And regardless, I hope the publishers get crushed on this one. While I won't go so far as to suggest that they don't serve any useful purpose anymore (as some people do), they _are_ dinosaurs and need to be dragged into 21st century competition. This should do it.

Please explain to me how having an MBA implies "customer-unfriendly." There are quite a few companies out there who hire lots of MBA's and who are customer-friendly.

If you meant accounting/finance/bean-counter types, then I see your argument.

With all the problems Best Buy has been having recently, it's hard to believe that they think this will solve anything.

A customer who knows they can't return a defective item at Best Buy will simply go shopping somewhere else like Walmart, Target, or Amazon, who have more lenient return policies and/or are just more customer-friendly altogether.

I don't expect this particular decision will hurt too much, but with these kinds of stupid decisions Best Buy will be out of business within 5 years.

Hey Cary: the jerk store called, and they're running out of you!"

If they drive like they're playing Carmageddon, that's a serious problem.

However, if they drive like they're playing Super Mario Kart... no problem! Except for when you drop a banana peel. That could really screw over a pedestrian walking behind you.

It makes me sad every time Microsoft does something to distance itself from the Zune brand.

I own 2 Zunes. I've been using them to listen to music at work nearly every day for the past 3 years. I've found them to be very high-quality pieces of hardware. I'm not a huge fan of the Zune software, but I don't think it's any worse than iTunes. Yet most of the time when I tell co-workers that I listen to music on a Zune, I have to endure ridicule for not using an Apple product. I have even heard from ex-MS colleagues that by-and-large, MS employees don't think very highly of the Zune.

What gives? Did I totally miss the boat on this and the Zune actually sucks? Am I just destined to be forever uncool by being associated with a failed MS product? I just never understood the hate, and somehow it seems to be worse now than ever. And now MS is apparently trying to distance itself from Zune as much as possible.

Keep your chin up, Zune. You still have a few fans out there.

Guys, we really need to start ganging up on Japan. They're finishing the space elevator soon. Once they launch their Alpha Centauri colony, they'll win!

Could someone provide a car analogy to explain?

Wouldn't it be fun if this were Iran's response to Stuxnet?