Notre Dame Law School hosted guest speaker, Ariel Katz

On April 8, 2013, Notre Dame Law School hosted guest speaker, Ariel Katz, an Associate Professor of Law from the University of Toronto. He presented his research on his paper, “e-Books, p-Books, and the Durapolist Problem.” The paper discusses a novel explanation to the problem of e-book distribution, where retailers (such as Apple and Amazon) create distribution agreements that allow these companies to buy e-books and subsequently sell the books at whatever price the retailers choose. After rejecting some possible explanations, the paper will examine the hypothesis that these arrangements reflect the book industry’s solution to the durable monopoly problem (otherwise known as the “Durapolist” problem). The author also discussed legal implications of these findings, including important implications for competition law and policy.