Sony unveiled its first-ever wireless e-reading device at a press conference held at the New York Public Library Tuesday morning. The seven-inch touchscreen Sony Daily Edition will be priced at $399, work on AT&T’s 3G network, and will be available by Christmas. In addition to the devices (they also officially confirmed the $199 and $299 next-generation e-readers), Sony also announced several other initiatives, including a partnership with libraries that will let readers rent digitized books from their local library for free by downloading available e-books for 21 days, an update of the Sony Reader Ebook Library Software 3.0 for both […]
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Jane Friedman Raises $3M in Funding for E-Book Startup
Documents filed with the SEC on Friday indicate that former HarperCollins CEO Jane Friedman has raised $3 million from Bay Area Holdings Inc., a fund of venture capital firm Kohlberg Ventures, for her new company, OpenRoad Integrated Media LLC. Jeff Sharp, an independent movie producer, and Chris Lederer, former CMO at HarperCollins, are listed as executives of OpenRoad, which lists a Spring Street address for its offices. Reiter, Kailas & Rosenblatt represented OpenRoad, described on the law firm’s website as “a start-up entity which is engaged in developing a platform for eBook marketing and publishing.” PW also notes that Sharp […]
Amazon, Microsoft, Yahoo Join Coalition to Oppose Google Settlement
Google’s 3 major rivals will join a coalition of nonprofit groups, individuals and library associations, tentatively called the Open Book Alliance, in opposing the Google Books Settlement. The group, led by antitrust lawyer Gary L. Reback and the Internet Archive’s Peter Brantley, plans to make a case to the Justice Department that the arrangement is anticompetitive, with individual members likely filing court objections independently. “This deal has enormous, far-reaching anticompetitive consequences that people are just beginning to wake up to,” Reback told the NYT. Brantley separately told the WSJ that members of the coalition “all see problems with the settlement […]
Amazon Guarantees Release Day Delivery of THE LOST SYMBOL for hardcover, Kindle
Clearing up what few questions remained about how Amazon would approach the September 15 release day of Dan Brown’s THE LOST SYMBOL, the retailer announced this morning that the book would be available for “guaranteed delivery” via UPS (for the hardcover edition) and via wireless (for the Kindle edition.) The hardcover will be priced at $16.17, while the Kindle edition will bear the $9.99 pricetag.Release
Further Opposition to the Google Books Settlement
As the September 4 date for authors deciding whether to opt in or opt out of the Google Books Settlement, more opposition is being voiced. Scott E. Gant, an author and partner at Boies Schiller & Flexner, a prominent Washington law firm, has launched what the NYT deems “a sweeping opposition” to the Google Books Settlement. “This is a predominantly commercial transaction and one that should be undertaken through the normal commercial process, which is negotiation and informed consent,” Gant told the paper. “Google and its partners are “trying to ram this through so that millions of copyright holders will […]
New WMA Letter Claims Publishers Won't Sell Through Google Settlement; Publishers Say Otherwise
William Morris Endeavor reiterated their advice to clients to opt out of the Google Book Settlement in a second letter sent last week after the Authors Guild responded aggressively to the agency’s correspondence and asserted it contained “several errors.” In the new letter from WME, said to be posted in its entirety, the agency underscored that “we believe that our clients benefit from their stature, the negotiating power of the Agency, as well as long established precedent in our book contracts that other authors may not share.” In other words, they want to make their own deals, and not be […]