The latest step in a process that has been underway for a while, the UK’s Intellectual Property Office published their proposals for changes to the country’s copyright law to provide “greater freedom to use copyright works such as computer games, paintings, photographs, films, books, and music, while protecting the interests of authors and right owners…. These form part of the Government’s response to creating a modern, robust and flexible copyright framework.” Trade publishers will be most focused on the “private copying” rule “to permit people to copy digital content they have bought onto any medium or device that they own, […]
International News
Launches: Digital Noir, Spanish Self-Publishing, Nielsen Consumer Data, and Ruckus Revised
Former editor-in-chief and creative director of the now-defunct LA Times Sunday magazine Nancie Clare and Rip Georges launch their new Kickstarter-backed Noir Magazine in Apple’s App store today (with additional platforms to follow). It’s an iPad magazine for the mystery, thriller, and true crime genres “in all mediums–a thoroughly modern, multi-media immersion into their books, TV, films, graphic novels, and video games.” Megan Abbott is editor at large and many other well-known authors are on the board of advisors and will contribute. The first issue includes an excerpt of Suspect by Robert Crais; Lee Child on bringing Reacher to the […]
Updates On Penguin’s Negotiations and Amazon China
Two interesting updates to stories from Thursday: Following the formalization of the ebook pricing settlement between the European Commission and four publishers and Apple announced yesterday, Penguin’s own statement about their negotiations was more forthcoming that the EC’s characterization. In fact, it was one of those rare moments when a company says out loud what everyone is already thinking. Rebecca Sinclair from Penguin’s London office reiterated “our position has been—and remains—that we have done nothing wrong” but added “as a practical matter, we are settling in the interests of clearing the decks before the new company is established.” The EC […]
New eBookstores for Germany and China
In the latest international ebookstore expansions, slow-moving Sony has finally launched their long-promised German Reader Store. They say it includes “thousands” of DRM-free books and at least one or two come from Luebbe, but there are no specific details provided beyond that. Fast-moving Amazon has launched a Kindle store and reading apps in China. A launch of Kindle reading devices there has long been expected, but still not announced. It has been a busy month for store openings. Kindle launched a proper Canadian store and went live in Brazil in December as well–at the same time as Kobo and Google […]
European Authorities Accept eBook Pricing Settlement; Penguin Now In Talks
As expected, the three US Settlers (Harper, Hachette and Simon & Schuster), along with Macmillan and Apple, have settled the EU investigation into ebook pricing as previously negotiated. The European Commission has formally “accepted the legally binding commitments” from the settling parties. Their announcement provides a lengthy way of saying that the EC has accepted the same basic settlement that was laboriously negotiated with the US Department of Justice (without ever actually mentioning the US case). Though Penguin has not settled with the EC, the new announcement says that position may change–not a big surprise, since settlements in both Europe […]
eNews: Google Books in Russia; eBooks From Time Inc. and USA Today
Google has launched its Google Play store in Russia, which will sell ebooks starting from 49 rubles ($1.59) to customers with an existing Google Wallet account. Time Inc. and USA Today are the latest magazine and newspaper publications, respectively, moving into the ebook market. Time Inc.’s MyRecipes.com is launching a new digital cookbook series with recipes taken from the company’s lifestyle publications Real Simple, Food & Wine, Cooking Light, Southern Living, Sunset, All You and Coastal Living. The first of the digital cookbooks, all priced at $3.99, is “MyRecipes Best-Loved Cookies for Every Occasion.” Meanwhile, USA Today’s first ebook, also released today, is USA TOMORROW, a […]