Media +Technology Intelligence
The Authors Guild is not impressed with Amazon’s opposition to the Google Books settlement. In a 49-page brief (pdf) filed with Judge Denny Chin on Tuesday, the Kindle-maker warned of the potentially anti-competitive effects both of the blanket license in the agreement for Google to scan and sell orphan works and of the price-fixing power of the Read More …
Pity Judge Denny Chin, the federal district court jurist in New York presiding over the Google Book Search case (The Authors Guild, et. al. v. Google, Inc.). Having steered the long, complex class action to within sight of the finish line he suddenly finds himself the object of an intense last-minute lobbying campaign from interests that Read More …
Quite an interesting battle is taking shape in the suddenly hot world of e-books. For many, of course, “e-books” are synonymous with Amazon and its Kindle device. But over the past few months, several would-be challengers to Amazon’s Kindle kingdom have emerged to do battle. In July, No. 1 brick-and-mortar bookseller Barnes & Noble unveiled Read More …
Sony formally unveiled two new e-book readers today, slightly ahead of schedule because details of the announcement began to leak on the web. The big news: one of the two models is priced at $199, a hundred bucks cheaper than the least-expensive Kindle (the fancier Sony device goes for $299). Clearly, Sony’s strategy is to position Read More …
By now, even Amazon would acknowledge mishandling the remote deletion of George Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm from hundreds of unsuspecting Kindles last week in response to a dispute over the rights to the works in the U.S. Apart from the near criminal lack of irony required to send 1984 — of all books — Read More …