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 […]
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Amazon UK to Fine Publishers for "Leaked Deliveries", Other Charges
An email leaked to the Bookseller claims that Amazon UK will start fining publishers £500 for “rejected deliveries” and could introduce a range of other charges. Starting on August 24, Amazon will apply charges to anyone failing to meet the retailer’s compliance “requirements [as] detailed in the vendor manual”. The email also hints that the £500 fine is an “initial” sum, suggesting additional sums could be applied. Amazon.co.uk also said that “the coming months” would see this charge extended to “include fees for other critical operational requirements” and that it would deduct the charges from publishers’ inventory payments. One publisher […]
Analysts Remain Unimpressed with "Better Than Expected" B&N Earnings Report
Even though B&N’s second quarter profits fell 5 percent, which was better than initial predictions, some analysts remained unimpressed with the retailer’s report, not to mention share prices falling 84 cents (or 4%) to $20.11 in yesterday’s trading. Standard & Poor’s Equity Research Retail Analyst Michael Souers kept his $16 price target and “strong sell” recommendation on the shares: “Facing long-term challenges such as a secular decline in adult readership levels as well as an increasing shift toward eBooks, we think shares are overvalued,” he said in a note. B&N also delayed updating its annual forecast until approximately October 1, […]
P&W Q&A With Agent Georges Borchardt
The latest in Jofie Ferrari-Adler’s series of interviews for Poets & Writers is with literary agent Georges Borchardt. Over a fifty-year career he’s represented authors ranging from Tennessee Williams, Aldous Huxley, Samuel Beckett, T. C. Boyle, Robert Coover, David Guterson, Anne Applebaum, Stanley Crouch yet is deemed a “hidden gem” in the publishing industry for being “cherished by their colleagues and peers but barely known outside of the business.” On why his background is different from others in publishing: “most literary agents in America have English as their native language. But I started out without knowing the language. I grew […]
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 […]
Google to Partner with France's National Library
Even as opposition swirls, Google Books continues to make deals with national libraries, the most recent being the Bibliothque Nationale de France (BNF) after a four-year battle. BNF director of collections Denis Bruckman described the decision to La Tribune as “purely financial”, as France provided only ¬5 million a year for digitising books for Gallica, the national digital library, yet the national library needed up to â¬80 million (£68 million) just for its works from 1870 to 1940. “We will not stop our own digitising programme, but if Google can enable us to go faster and farther, then why not?”Times […]