The U.S. Department of Justice vs. Apple trial has kicked off today in federal court.  The trial is set to stretch three weeks, and today marks the first day of the trial that could potentially set the rules of Internet commerce.

Both sides presented their opening statements with the DOJ stating that the Cupertino giant colluded with publishers in 2010 before its iPad was released to raise the price of ebooks.  In 2011, Apple and five of the six big publishing houses were slapped with an antitrust lawsuit for conspiring to fix the pricing of ebooks.  Hachette Book Group, Simon & Schuster Inc., and HarperCollins Publishers LLC were quick to settle and terminated their contracts with Apple, while Penguin and Macmillan tried to defend themselves but eventually gave in and settled as well.

Apple has been stern in its stance from the very beginning, and CEO Tim Cook recently stated,“We’re not going to sign something that says we did something that we didn’t do, so we’re going to fight,” when his company was asked to settle.

The big question now is: why did Apple choose to fight when its allies have abandoned the cause, and is Apple really the ringmaster of this ebook pricing scandal?

Joining Kristin Feledy on this morning’s Live NewsDesk Show is Wikibon Chief Analyst Dave Vellante with his Breaking Analysis on Apple’s debacle.

“I don’t necessarily see the ‘hard collusion,’” Vellante stated.  “Apple, I think, was playing the silent hand in all these.  Ringmaster is kind of  an interesting term…I’m not sure Apple was the ringmaster although I feel as though Apple totally understood what was going on here.”

When asked about his take on former Policy Director for the U.S. Federal Trade Commission David Balto’s statement, “This case will effectively set the rules for Internet commerce,” Vellante countered that the market is the one that is “ultimately gonna determine what happens in long term Internet commerce” – not the ruling for this case.

For more of Vellante’s Breaking Analysis on what would happen to Apple if it loses this battle, check out the NewsDesk video below: