Media Money
- Facebook's COO Sheryl Sandberg to Harvard Grads: ‘Can You Click On an Ad or Two’
- NCTA Trends: Mobile video, Watch ESPN and TV Everywhere
- Discovery CEO David Zaslav on OWN, Global Growth & Netflix Impact
- National Cable Show: Cloud, Wifi, TV Everywhere Loom Large
- Facebook: Hacking All Night to an IPO
- Why Facebook Is Celebrating Its IPO With a Hackathon
- Inside Facebook's Money Machine
- Sheryl Sandberg: Facebook's Billion-Dollar Woman
- Diablo III Launch Breaks Records and Servers
- Privacy in Focus Ahead of Facebook IPO
RSS FEED
MOST SHARED
- Greece Pours $22.6 Billion Into Four Biggest Banks
- Spain's Borrowing Costs Near Danger Level: Bailout Next?
- Will the Euro Misery Give Rise to Another Soros?
- Greece to Leave Euro Zone on June 18: Wealth Manager
- 5 Spots Where the Dollar Buys a Great Vacation
- European Firms Plan for Greek Unrest and Euro Exit
- Public Pensions Faulted for Bets on Rosy Returns
- Winemaking Lures the Wealthy, But Not With Profits
- Hostage to Headlines
- Citigroup Lost $20 Million on Facebook IPO Trades
- A New Look at the ‘New Poor’
- Six Pack: Beer Buzz of the Week
- Greek Exit Could Trigger 50% Fall in Euro Stocks: Analyst
- Under Pressure, FHA Skews to Wealthier Home Buyers
- Big Stock Upside for Hudson City Deal: Analyst
- 5 High-Yield Stocks Ready to Boost Dividends
- Yoshikami: Four Things You Need to Know About Gold Now
- Steinbock: The Euro Zone Endgame Begins
- Option Bulls Take Another Shot on Idenix
- Spain's Debt Costs Near Danger Level: Is Bailout Next?
- US Markets Will Be Watching Europe—And Jobs Report
- European Companies Plan for Greek Unrest and Euro Exit
- Public Pensions Faulted for Bets on Rosy Returns
- Greece to Leave Euro Zone on June 18: Wealth Manager
- Italy 2-Year Borrowing Costs at Peak Since December
- Euro Bond Wins Supporters, but Details Remain Vague
- German, UK Bond Yields Will Go Even Lower
- Labor Board Member Resigns Over Leak to GOP Allies
Big Day for Publishing: Brown Scores and Google Tackles the Future
Text Size 
Correspondent
 |
AP Dan Brown - Davinci Code |
This is of course good news for book sellers (Amazon [AMZN
Loading...
()
], Barnes and Noble [BKS
Loading...
()
] and Borders [BGP
Loading...
()
] and it should also provide a boost for rival booksellers as this hot title brings buyers into book stores, real and virtual. (Here's my blog previewing the book's launch)
Meanwhile, the future of digital book rights is at stake as Google [GOOG
Loading...
()
] and the Department of Justice are in talks about its controversial settlement over digital book scanning. Google's $125 million settlement with the US Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers would create a "Book Rights Registry," allowing authors and publishers to resolve copyright claims and take a cut of Google revenues from the books. Many in the book industry are concerned that this Google-controlled Registry will be able to set prices for all copyright-protected works. Another controversial point: the deal also allows Google to profit from "orphan titles," those books who are out of print and whose rights holders haven't come forward.
The fear is that Google is creating and controlling a competition-free market, and no competition means lower prices, which means less revenues for the content creators.
Now Google is heading towards a new way to distribute (and generate revenue) from the public domain books they've scanned. The Espresso Book Machine, from a company called On Demand Books, does just that, it prints books on demand. This machine, which can cost nearly $100,000, can print a 300 page book in four minutes. And I'm not talking about a regular-old HP or Xerox printer; this gadget binders the book and even prints a cover. Google is reportedly on the verge of announcing that it'll offer its public domain books through the system. Right now just few publishers have signed up to print through the machine -- it now offers 1.5 million titles through its deals.
This could really revolutionize the publishing industry. But the question is, for all those publishers that print 'Moby Dick' and other books in public domain and profit from the ongoing revenue, how threatening is this new competitor? The stakes will be raised as soon as Google signs on.
Questions? Comments?
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes
