When you buy a Hatchette book for $10 on Amazon:

Amazon gets $3.00.
Hatchette gets $5.25.
The author gets $1.75.

When you buy an e-book from Hatchette on Amazon for $10:
Amazon gets $3.00.
Hatchette gets $5.25.
The author gets $1.50.

When you buy a self-published title on Amazon for $10:
Amazon gets $7.00
The author gets $3.00.

Hatchette gets 52.5% of revenue from the work authors do.
E-books, which have no cost of production or distribution net Hachette 52.5% of the author's work.
Hatchette, along with the other big five publishers have posted record profits over the last few years.

If you understand revenue vs. profit: Hatchette is operating at the SAME net profit that Amazon is, ~$260m. Hatchette makes as much net profit as Amazon does, for doing a fraction of the business.

I can't go so far as to say that Amazon is trying to help authors with their demand for lower prices from Hatchette, but I *can* definitively say that I have zero sympathy for Hatchette. Whether Hatchette can reasonably be expected to cut into their absurdly record-setting profit levels by giving up a point or two of margin to keep Amazon as a supplier remains to be seen via these unresolved contract disputes.

I have a T-Shirt that I got from jinx.com that basically says that.

Front: Social Engineering Expert:
Back: Because there is no patch for human stupidity

As a former M1A2 tank commander, I resent your request you insensitive clod!

Does anyone else find it ironic that THIS messed up sight is posting an article about another messed up sight?

Timothy, you're not literate. Don't be hypocritical. Yeah, Mt. Gox was screwed up. So is Slashdot. And /. beta. And you.

I'm going to get downmodded for saying this no doubt....

But having read both sides of the story here, it looks like the flow of the commentators are sort of missing what this power play was about.

The NCPPR wasn't trying to get Tim Cook riled up....they were trying to make millions of stockholders aware that Al Gore, whom both the left and right recognize as a nutjob, is the board member driving some weird decisions at Apple, and that Tim is backing him. There's nothing wrong with green data centers. But that's the tip of the iceberg. Al doesn't know the first thing about computers. And he's on the board of directors at Apple. And he's working (and succeeding) at driving Apple board discussions away from how to make computing devices and into "how to fight climate change." He's shifting the company away from what they're good at into something new, and political.

"Hey! You guys hired Lisa, the former head of the EPA to be a decision maker at Apple. What sense does that make? What qualifications does she have to make decisions for a tech company?"

"Hey! Fine with green data. Why are we looking at powerpoint presentations about fighting climate change instead of nextgen technology? Why is Al Gore giving the presentation?"

I have no love for the NCPPR, but I understand why they did it. I work at GE. If Jeff Immelt took Al Gore into the Board of Directors, and senior staff meetings were dominated by Al Gore talking about Climate Change instead of market penetration and product roll-out, I'd expect people to want to stand up and take notice.

I particularly like the part where the demand letter to subscribers will include a copy of the court order and "clearly state in bold type that no court has yet made a determination that such subscriber has infringed or is liable in any way for payment of damages."

No pulling the wool over peoples' eyes. I still don't get the summary though.

Could someone translate that crappy summary into English for me?

The best part of Facebook's article is where they use identical research methodology to prove that there will be no air left by 2060.

I predict an immediate rush on all stockpiles of canned air!

Turn about is fair play sir!

I read the story.

This is one of those cases where I would say, "Pics or it didn't happen." The story seems improbable, I would expect a technologically savvy author to have fundamental literacy skills, and it has so many holes in it, I just see a story.

Not only does our government not have the money to fund all those foodstamps, it doesn't have the funds to absorb the cost of additional health care either.

Conservatives and Liberals have different spending agendas, but they both want to spend, spend spend. We have no MONEY to spend.

The desktop PC market is *not* declining. Shipments of new PCs are declining because the PC market is stable.

So many Bitcoin stories. This one asks questions like,
"Can we trust them?!?"
"Are these assurances enough!?!"

Same answer to both: "Who cares anymore?!?"

Yes. 11B. Infantry. I turned down a full ride to Michigan State to enlist in the army. Despite an ASVAB score that meant I could choose any MOS that I wanted, I chose Infantry. I even chose the maximum enlistment period (six years). My basic training had a population mix of high school graduates, GED holders, enlisted NCOs from other MOSes that wanted to switch to Infantry, college drop-outs, and a couple college graduates.

Several years later, I got an early out of my enlistment to attend USMA, and finally got a college degree. Several of my classmates were also former Infantrymen. During my tenure at West Point, I saw other Infantrymen attend, some of them decorated veterans; one a medal of honor recipient.

There are stupid people in all walks of life; having an 11 or 35 designator doesn't make you one.

Piers Anthony wrote Killobyte in 1993.

His description of VR is a 3-D fully immersive sensory experience. Users wear a full body suit and have full body tactile feedback. When VR gets there, people will get on board.

Until then, you have a treadmill with an ultra-close T.V.