Amazon has escalated the growing feud between itself and Apple by issuing ultimatums to e-book publishers, inside stories from the industry claimed on Thursday. The online retailer has allegedly been pressing major publishers to sign three-year contracts that not only guarantee Kindle books for the period but would prevent them from offering a better price to Apple or any other e-bookseller. These publishers could use the agency model and set their own prices, the NYT noted, but only if Amazon was given equal or better treatment.
