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The Justice Department's warning to Apple about the company's apparent collusion with publishers on e-book pricing couldn't have been better timed. With the news breaking the day after CEO Tim Cook unveiled Apple's new iPad, the idea that Apple's breakneck speed of innovation has produced a wake of legal consequences is sure to get maximum play in the tech press. According to The Wall Street Journal's sources -- "people familiar with the matter" seem to know everything -- the DOJ has also warned five U.S. publishers about their pricing: Simon & Schuster, Hachette, Penguin, Macmillan and HarperCollins.

This is not a new situation. Apple has been flirting with antitrust violations for years, and whispers of a damaging suit involving the company's negotiations with publishers over the prices of e-books in iTunes have been circulating since last year. In December, the European Commission announced an almost identical investigation that involved the same publishers. Perhaps buoyed by complaints from Amazon, the Europeans took aim at the publishers alleging that they'd "possibly with the help of Apple, engaged in anti-competitive practices affecting the sale of e-books… in breach of EU antitrust rules." This happened three months after a similar class action lawsuit was filed against Apple in the U.S. District Court of Northern California. Looking even further back, Apple raised suspicions within the DOJ in the spring of 2010 for anti-competitive behavior related to music sales in iTunes.