Two weeks ago, textbook publishers won an important victory in German court against Swiss file-sharing site Rapidshare, in the form of a preliminary injunction ordering Rapidshare to prevent the illegal sharing of 148 copyrighted works named in the suit. The ruling indicated “it is not only necessary to promptly block access to the specific file, but rather to also take precautions going beyond this in order to prevent to the largest possible extent the occurrence of further similar infringements.” The court awarded the plaintiffs legal fees of 7.2 million euros, and said violations could incur fines of 250,000 euros per […]
Archives for February 2010
Alibris Buys Monsoon
Online used-book marketplace Alibris’s parent company is acquiring Oregon-based marketplace selling solutions company Monsoon for a combination of cash and stock. (Monsoon helps sellers list their good across multiple marketplaces.) Alibris owner Oak Hill Capital provided funding along with additional bank financing. The two companies will continue to operate separately. Monsoon ceo Kanth Gopalpur will continue to run the company. He says in the announcement, “This transaction will provide the combined Monsoon-Alibris customer base with even more opportunities to expand their businesses and increase sales. We will be able to take advantage of additional resources, technology, and capital in order […]
Barnes & Noble Reports Decent Earnings On Declining Sales
Barnes & Noble reported third quarter sales of $2.175 billion for the period ending January 10. Same-store sales at regular BN outlets were down 5.5 percent compared to a year, and fell 4.7 percent overall, at $1.4 billion. College bookstore sales of $566 million were down 1.3 percent. BN.com sales grew 32 percent to $210 million–and were up 67 percent in the month of January, driven by nook sales. (BN’s quarters no longer align following the integration of the College division, but last year in March store comps were down 7.3 percent–so they are underperforming an already-lowered bar.) During the […]
eNews: Kobo UK, Colleges Lukewarm on SuperKindle
Kobo has officially launched their UK ebookstore, the first of many planned international launches. The Hachette imprints are not included yet, though the Bookseller says that they will be once the company has completed their transition to selling ebooks on an agency model. For now Kobo is pricing new bestsellers at 8.99 pounds.Press release Colleges participating in the “pilot program” to test how students use Amazon’s SuperKindle have reported findings that should be of interest to anyone looking to this market as a key part of their ereading strategy. USA Today reports that “if one clear consensus emerged from the […]
Pellegrino to Change Hiroshima Book
Holt announced Monday afternoon that Charles Pellegrino will rewrite the passages in LAST TRAIN FROM HIROSHIMA that featured inaccurate information from one of his sources, the late Joseph Fucco, reported in the New York Times. Publisher Steve Rubin says that, “Despite his due diligence [Pellegrino] was deceived by one of his sources; he and we will do everything in our power to set the historical record straight as soon as possible. The total changes will amount to less than five pages of text and one illustration.” Pellegrino is speaking with the family of the late flight engineer James R. Corliss […]
Ingram Makes Galley and Catalog Play
Ever since people started getting interested in electronic and on-demand galleys and catalogs, we wondered why Ingram was leaving the field open to other players. Now they’ve answered that question with the announcement of PubLink, “a robust and flexible platform to manage, track and deliver product catalogs and galleys in both print and electronic formats.” The product lets publishers “to store and manage customer and publicity contacts, distribute galleys and catalogs in an electronic format, and order and deliver to customers printed galleys using the print on demand single copy technology and workflow from Ingram’s Lightning Source.” Reps and publicists […]