新华网8月3日电 据科技博客网站Gizmodo报道, 近日,苹果公司对美国司法部及其小伙伴们提出的一系列有关电子书市场的规则感到不满。周五下午,司法部联合33个州检察长,针对苹果公司电子书定价方面的反竞争行为,提出一系列改善措施。仅在几个小时之后,苹果公司提出自己的提议予以回击。

苹果公司的回应可谓十分戏剧化。苹果公司认为,政府的措 改善措施“严厉并苛刻地入侵苹果业务,其严苛程度超出了任何不当行为或潜在威胁理应承受之重。”此外,苹果还坚称,除了今年早些时候法官裁决的一项违规行为之外,公司并未违反反托拉斯法的任何条款,即使之前曾经有过,但早已规范了自身行为。但苹果公司又表示,按照它自己的话说,如果政府部门真要采取什么行动的话,应该”合理限制苹果分享信息的能力“,并且为苹果规定”持久、合理的反垄断义务“。

这种说法显然无法糊弄到政府。司法部及其伙伴们希望苹果终止与涉案的五家出版商之间的协议,并禁止其在五年内签订任何新的合作协议。 他们还希望苹果允许如亚马逊和巴诺(Barnes and Noble)等竞争对手不必经过苹果的iBookstore,直接链接他们自己的应用购买服务。司法部表示,必须建立一个到位的监管系统,来确保苹果能够案规则办事。

接下来的事情就很有趣了。苹果公司、司法部以及州检察官们将会找到一个折衷办法,这样的话,苹果不会觉得自己受打压,政府部门也不会觉得苹果公司进行价格操纵试图独霸天下。因为没有人喜欢垄断,也没有人喜欢被打压,但所有人都想要价钱合理的电子书。

译者:张艺

百度新闻与新华网国际频道合作稿件,转载请注明出处。

Apple Fires Back at DOJ with New Terms for E-Book Sales

Apple is not happy with the Department of Justice and friends. On Friday afternoon, just a few hours after the DOJ and 33 state attorneys general proposed a series of remedies for Apple's anticompetitive behavior over e-book pricing, the company struck back with some proposals of its own.

Apple's reaction can be best described as dramatic. The company called the government's proposals a "draconian and punitive intrusion into Apple's business, wildly out of proportion to any adjudicated wrongdoing or potential harm." Further, Apple maintains that it didn't violate any antitrust law, despite what the judge said earlier this year, and even if they did, they've since changed their behavior. But—and this feels like a big "but" based on Apple's wording—if something must be done, the government should place "reasonable limitations on Apple's ability to share information" and issue "reasonable antitrust training obligations for Apple, lasting a reasonable term."

This doesn't really jive with what the government wants to do.Rather than limit contact, the DOJ and friends want Apple to terminate its agreements with the five publishers implicated in the case and prevent Apple from forming new agreements for five years. They also want Apple to allow rivals like Amazon and Barnes and Noble to link to their own stores for in-app purchases rather than be required to go through Apple's iBookstore. There should also be a monitor in place to make sure Apple behaves, the DOJ said.

Now comes the fun part. Apple, the Department of Justice and the attorneys general will ideally find some middle ground where Apple doesn't feel like its getting stomped on and the government doesn't feel like Apple's price fixing and trying to be a monopoly. Because nobody likes a monopoly; nobody likes to get stomped on; and everybody likes affordable e-books.

(原标题:苹果公司回应司法部电子书新条款)