US District Judge Denise Cote said the following in a 160-page ruling. “The plaintiffs have shown that the publisher defendants conspired with each other to eliminate retail price competition in order to raise e-book prices, and that Apple played a central role in facilitating and executing that conspiracy… Without Apple’s orchestration of this conspiracy it would not have succeeded as it did in the spring of 2010.”

See more on the story at Slashgear. (And just about everywhere else.)

After Apple’s co-conspirator’s rolled over for settlements early in this process it’s been hard to think of the iPad maker as anything but guilty. The question now is whether enough damage has been done to Apple (and the eBook Revolution)?

Will they follow their partners in crime and pay their fines, or will they dig a deeper hole with appeals?