Justice Denise L. Cote approved the settlement in the anti-trust case regarding e-book pricing between the Justice Dept. and three major publishers (the Hachette Book Group, Simon & Schuster, and HarperCollins).  These publishers, along with three others, had agreed with each other to set prices on e-books at $12.99-$14.99.  According to the judge, this practice is called horizontal price fixing and is illegal under the Sherman Anti-trust Act.  Amazon is clearly thrilled with the decision.  It will now have free reign to drop the prices on e-books to $9.99 or below. Based on the law, it appears as if the judge was correct.  Setting prices hurts the consumer and is anti-competitive behavior. However,  I feel for the independent booksellers and authors. How will they make any money? Hold on to those hardcovers--they'll be worth something someday.