eNews

Macmillan is launching DynamicBooks, a platform pitched as web 2.0 textbooks, that lets professors customize and annotate textbooks to “make the book fit your course.” Part of the pitch to students is that the etextbooks cost lest–and of course, since they are heavily customized, they have no real value on the resale market. They plan to sell 100 titles by August. The Chronicle of Higher Education says professors will receive a dollar a book for each customized copy bought that features material they added. “That could add up if a professor’s retooled book becomes popular and is assigned by professors […]

So what happens next in the Google case? Everyone waits for the judge, which could be weeks, or months. The outside boundary is likely the scheduling of his Senate confirmation hearing on his nomination to move up to the Court of Appeals.  A couple more interesting statistics that were mentioned in the afternoon’s presentations. Michael Boni said that so far, “620,000 books that are out-of-print that we would call orphan works” have been claimed by 40,000 authors.  While the effective monopoly over unclaimed works is an important issue in the case, Google may have defused that in part with this […]

Judge Denny Chin ended yesterday’s daylong hearing on the Google Books Settlement hearing the same way he started it, telling the audience, “I will reserve decision. There is a lot to think about.” Earlier in the afternoon the judge wryly uttered the line we quote in our headline, and it was the best and most concise summation of the day’s arguments. Alas this second account of the Google Olympics will be less whimsical than our first installment (you’ve been warned). For close watchers of the case, there’s little need or interest in rehashing the presentations of all those who spoke, […]

The long-awaited Google Books Settlement hearing is underway today in the New York courtroom of Judge Denny Chin as he tries to clear his docket before moving up to the Court of Appeals. For any who might have brought unrealistic hopes of an immediate answer, though, Judge Chin started the morning by telling the court, “I’m not going to rule today, there’s too much to digest.” He added, “I have an open mind.” But during the morning’s presentations, Chin’s questions made it clear that he is quite familiar with the stacks of briefs already filed. He repeated the same lament […]

Google finally got their chance to speak in their own voice (or at least their attorney’s voice) to the many objections raised over the proposed settlement with the Authors Guild, the AAP, and others in a brief filed yesterday with the court. In places the filing all but sneers at “many of those complaining about the settlement’s terms [who] are not themselves class members.” The overwhelming focus of Google’s arguments is on rebutting points raised in the recent opinion from the Justice Department, suggesting that is the primary set of arguments that Google believes might carry any weight with the […]