Media Money

MEDIA MONEY VIDEO GALLERY

Big Media Names Report Earnings
Sirius, Linkedin and Activision will report earnings. So are the stocks hot or not? CNBC's Julia Boorstin & John Carney weigh in.

CNBC's Jon Fortt; Shaw Wu, Sterne Agee; and Mark Sue, RBC Capital Markets, discuss Cisco's latest earnings. Also, the update on News Corp's earnings, with CNBC's Julia Boorstin.

News Corp Earnings Review
Rupert Murdoch just made some big progress in its hacking scandal, which will minimize the embarassing details shared in court, reports CNBC's Julia Boorstin.

The Trade on Sprint & Disney Update

The Fast Money crew with the trade on Sprint, ahead of its Q4 earnings. Also, CNBC's Julia Boorstin has an update from Disney's conference call, as well as the outlook for ad revenues.

Disney Conference Call Update

CNBC's Julia Boorstin has the latest details from Disney's conference call, reporting attendance is up at the theme parks, and the company will launch a new broadcast channel in Japan next month.

Disney's Iger on Q1 Results
Robert Iger, Walt Disney president & CEO, explains how the current quarter is trending in ad sales and parks bookings, with CNBC's Julia Boorstin and Maria Bartiromo.

RSS FEED

» Help

Subscribe to this RSS feed
Stay up to date with Media Money.

LATEST FROM OUR BLOGS

» More

- The Real Reason Behind Bank of America’s Rally

TOP HEADLINES

» Markets | Economy | Companies

- Is Bill Gross Losing His Touch As the Market's Bond King?

Is Google Hurting Book Publishers?

Published: Tuesday, 30 Jun 2009 | 2:43 PM ET

Text Size

By: Julia Boorstin
Correspondent

Here's the question the publishing industry is trying to figure out: Does it make sense for Google [GOOG Loading... () ] to have the rights to exploit "orphan" books, those whose copyright holders can't be found. Is it bad if Google has the exclusive rights to those books through its book search initiative?

Amazon's Kindle
Source: Amazon.com
Amazon's Kindle

Now the president of the U.S. arm of Oxford University Press is asking Congress to prevent Google from having the "exclusive" rights to orphan books. Tim Barton is proposing that Congress give others the same rights over these works as Google. The issue at hand is the settlement Google made last fall with publishers, which has been endorsed by the major U.S. publishing associations, though it's being investigated by the Department of Justice and has been criticized by libraries and law professors.

RELATED LINKS

As part of a larger plan to scan books, Google has a deal with publishers to help them sell some current books. The idea to scan books and make them available online is intriguing, and it seems could ultimately help a struggling industry. But the question remains whether it's dangerous to put one company in control of so much information. Google already scanned 7 million books without permission. Will this, along with the Kindle, be the turning point that brings the publishing industry into the 21st century? Or does it represent a wresting of power away from content owners? Documents in the case are due in September.

Every quarter publishing divisions of media conglomerates report grim results. There's Harper Collins at News Corp, Simon & Schuster at CBS, and Random House at Bertelsmann. Amazon's Kindle is helping distribute books in a new digital format, but the revenue stream from this business is still minimal. Bottom line, publishers need all the help they can get. They might think it's worth fighting over the right to "orphan" books; the real question is whether they can negotiate some sort of profitable partnership with Google, without allowing the behemoth to win a power struggle.

Publishers' Parent Companies