If you’re a copyright geek you’ll be interested in the Omega watch case that the Supreme Court has agreed to hear in their next term. Omega used a copyrighted symbol on their back of their watches to thwart Costco and others from selling lower-priced grey market versions of the company’s watches in the US. The case is important because, in favoring Omega, the district and appeals courts ruled that the first-sale doctrine does not apply to goods first sold outside of the US, even if they are then imported for sale here. As the WSJ notes, “Constrain the first-sale doctrine […]
International News
…And the UK Gets a Native Kindle and eBookstore
At the same time that Amazon releases two new models of the Kindle ereader on August 27, the company will launch the machines in the UK, available for the first time for direct sale from Amazon UK in British sterling. Previously, UK customers could buy Kindles priced in dollars from Amazon’s US site, incurring shipping charges and other fees. That said, UK customers will still pay comparatively more for their devices based on current exchange rates, with the wireless Kindle priced at 149 pounds (roughly 230 dollars) and the new wi-fi only version selling for 109 pounds (or about 170 […]
Booker Longlist Announced
The Booker Prize longlist was announced yesterday. The list will be whittled to six on September 7, and the winner will be named on October 12. As helpfully sorted below, four of the titles are scheduled for US publication over the next three months, and three have no announced US publication date. In a Booker first, Damon Galgut’s novel does not have a US print release date yet, but is available now from Amazon Kindle. Peter Carey, Parrot and Olivier in AmericaAndrea Levy, The Long SongDavid Mitchell, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet Lisa Moore, February Christos Tsiolkas, The […]
Penguin Sales Up 9 Percent As Profit More than Doubles
Sales at Penguin for the first half of the year rose 9 percent, at 493 million pounds–as did sales across Pearson–and operating profit at the book publisher more than doubled, at 44 pounds (up from 21 million pounds a year ago). The company says the increase in margins is “the result of a strategy of targeted and sustained investment in publishing, digital change and reorganization.” They go on to cite “a series of organizational changes made in 2009 at Penguin UK and Dorling Kindersley to strengthen publishing, accelerate the transition to digital, reduce costs and shift design and production to […]
People
Cengage Learning is restructuring to consolidate its business units into “one streamlined operating group” and two key executives are leaving as a result. They are bringing together their academic and professional group, the Gale library/reference division, and their international operations and say the transition “is expected to be completed in September.” President of Gale Patrick Sommers will retire at the end of July, and president of academic and professional group Ron Mobed will leave the company. A new executive committee includes ceo Ron Dunn; Adrian Butler, Executive Vice President, Human Resources; Ken Carson, General Counsel; Dean Durbin, Chief Financial Officer; […]
More On Penguin Canada
Penguin Group ceo John Makinson and Penguin USA ceo David Shanks further addressed some of the company’s recent changes in Canada in a phone interview yesterday (as well as in interviews with Canadian media, excerpted below). Makinson underscored that the board-in-formation for Penguin Canada “is not going to run anything” and the job of the new board chairman, who has been identified but is still resolving other commitments, “will not be an executive function.” While the new post “will be a part-time role,” Makinson sees the board as a providing “a really useful way of thinking” about strategic issues and […]