US has evidence of Apple e-book conspiracy; Privacy commish probes Telstra over data breach

The United States has evidence that consumer electronics giant Apple participated in a conspiracy to raise prices of e-books, according to the judge overseeing the country’s civil antitrust case against the company.

US District Judge Denise Cote is overseeing claims from the Justice Department and some US states that Apple conspired with publishers to undermine Amazon.com’s position in the e-book market.

The US sued Apple and the publishers in 2012. The publishers have since settled, leaving Apple as the only remaining defendant.

At a pretrial hearing last week, Cote gave what she called her “tentative view” on the case.

“I believe that the government will be able to show at trial direct evidence that Apple knowingly participated in and facilitated a conspiracy to raise prices of e-books, and that the circumstantial evidence in this case, including the terms of the agreements, will confirm that,” Cote said.

Cote said this view was based largely on some of the submitted evidence, including emails and correspondence from 2009 and 2010.

She said that she had not read many of the affidavits submitted in support of the parties’ positions and that no final decision would be made until after the trial.

Orin Snyder, Apple’s lead lawyer in the case, said: “Evidence will show that Apple benefited consumers by injecting much-needed competition and innovation into an emerging market.”

The trial is expected to feature evidence including emails from Steve Jobs, Apple’s late founder and former chief executive.

The trial will begin 3 June. Cote is hearing the case without a jury.

The Justice Department’s case against Apple reportedly includes an email from Steve Jobs to James Murdoch, the deputy chief operating officer of News Corp. News Corp owns HarperCollins, one of the publishers named in the Justice Department’s suit, which has since settled.

“Throw in with Apple and see if we can all make a go of this to create a real mainstream e-books market at $12.99 and $14.99,” Jobs told Murdoch.

If the publishers stayed with Amazon, Jobs said, their portion of profit from e-books would diminish over time.

Privacy commissioner probes Telstra breach

The federal privacy commissioner, Timothy Pilgrim, has opened an investigation into a data breach that saw the personal information of thousands of Telstra customers appear in a Google search.

A Victorian business owner inadvertently stumbled across Telstra spreadsheets when using Google to search for telco carrier access codes.

The spreadsheets included customer names, telephone numbers, and home and business addresses.

Now, Pilgrim says he has launched an investigation into the data breach.

“Telstra is currently investigating the incident and have started to contact affected customers,” Pilgrim said in a statement.

“I have asked that Telstra provide me with further information on the incident, including how it occurred, what information was compromised and what steps they have taken to prevent a reoccurrence,” he said.

As part of his investigation, Pilgrim will “look at whether Telstra’s practices were consistent with the Privacy Act 1988 at the time of the incident”, he said.