This excerpt originally appeared in The Technology Liberation Front on April 11, 2012.

The Department of Justice has formally filed suit against Apple and several major book publishers claiming collusion over eBook pricing. Let’s say Apple and the publishers are guilty as charged and in violation of our nation’s antitrust laws. Here’s my opinion on that: So what? What Apple and the publishers are doing here is trying to find a way to sustain creative works in an era when copyright law is slowly dying.