Earlier this week I listened to the excellent BookExpocast on the Google Book Search settlement. Until then I hadn’t considered that the agreement could prevent the creative destruction needed to renew the industry. It is about books, old books. It is not about content and its future forms. As such the agreement is a 20th [...]
The unpacking of the Google Book Search settlement continues today.
Carolyn Kellogg at the LA Times focuses on the money issues. As she points out digital revenues, do not a career make. In the last paragraph she asks some open ended questions…
Will this kind of electronic book replace previous ebooks? …. or will they get digital [...]
Kassia Krozser over at Booksquare had a pretty balanced reaction to yesterday’s GBS settlement. In contrast, my two posts from yesterday were pretty half-baked so I would like to point to three questions I have about the whole thing.
For the record I am worried about the obsessive culture of ownership around intellectual property. When I [...]
Martyn Daniels, of the Booksellers Association of the UK and Ireland, comments on the GBS settlement thusly:
Again we have long argued for a rights clearing house but not one that is tied to an act such as this. Some may say that the industry has opted for the easy route and one that means that [...]