In bookish-techy news this week:
Tim Berners-Lee defends the web
From Scientific American:
A neutral communications medium is the basis of a fair, competitive market economy, of democracy, and of science. Debate has risen again in the past year about whether government legislation is needed to protect net neutrality. It is. Although the Internet and Web generally thrive on lack of regulation, some basic values have to be legally preserved.
Amazon continues quest to dominate the world by innovating and making customers happy
- Amazon Kindle tops Consumer Reports ratings.
- Amazon acquires Toby Press literary fiction list.
- Amazon gives the gift of gifting Kindle books.
Copyright-challenged Cooks Source calls it a day
From Techland:
Whether or not the intentions of the angry Internet mob was to tear down a local publication or not, the Cooks Source Magazine controversy has forced the magazine to fold. In an interview with the Daily Hampshire Gazette, Griggs tells the reporter that the free magazine is done for. The November 2010 issue will be the last publication.
“The name is compromised, big time,” Griggs said.
paidContent urges media industries to create their own disruption
From paidContent:
It is now clear that the same digitization process will eventually transform all industries, that companies lose control of their customers when new technology enables them to interact with products…You may well have heard it before, but to respond to disruption you really need to become your own disruption. To do this you need to identify the disruption that needs harnessing (like banks did with telephone banking) not just fight it (like the music industry did with file sharing).
Hachette Livre moves forward with Google
From The Bookseller:
Hachette Livre has come to an agreement with Google that will see the giant search engine digitise the publisher’s out of print books in France, bringing to an end a long-running dispute stemming from Google’s vast book digitisation project. The deal will now be subject to six months ‘fine-tuning’, and will also be made available to other French publishers.
Indie press Gaspereau partners with D+M to deliver “The Sentimentalists” to the masses.
From Quill and Quire:
When asked if he is afraid of letting down Gaspereau partisans, who championed the company’s right to release the now much in-demand title at their own slow-and-steady pace, Steeves doesn’t miss a beat. “We have stuck to our guns,” he says. “We’ve picked partners that fit our philosophy, [who do] creative and original works. The most important principle here is to serve the text and to serve the author, and that’s what we’ve done. [D&M] is going to take good care of Johanna and get a quality edition out there. That’s all that matters.”
Agent Ari Emanuel ready to disintermediate publishing
From paidContent:
“I definitely don’t think i have to go to Knopf. I don’t think I have to go to Simon & Schuster for the book business. So I think that’s going to be a very contentious conversation,” he said. “They might just get hardcover (rights), but I don’t know yet.”
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