Google turns scanned books back into paper
Google’s plan to digitize copyrighted books is under legal attack.******But the Internet giant is stepping up its PR offensive to convince consumers of the benefits wrought by its broader book scanning project.******Exhibit A: the Espresso Book Machine.******The contraption pictured here can produce bound paperback books, from hard-to-find works of literature to little-known cookbooks, in a matter of minutes.****** The machine itself is not Google’s; it’s the creation of On Demand Books. On Wednesday, the companies announced a deal giving On Demand and its Espresso Machine access to Google’s digital library of 2 million public domain titles.******Until now, the works digitized by Google were available only as digital files for reading on computer screens or electronic readers. With the Espresso machine, the companies say, consumers will be able to bury their noses in old-fashioned, hardcopy versions of their desired books – many of which have been have been out of print for years.******On Demand Books says it currently has 16 of its book-making machines at bookstores, libraries and other locations and plans to have 34 of the machines (which are priced starting at $75,000) next year.******The machine will only crank out books from Google’s archive with expired copyrights, which in the United States means they were published before 1923. Google is currently seeking court approval of a settlement with groups representing publishers and authors regarding its use of scanned copyrighted books.
Judge will get proposal to rid world of physical books
Here’s an idea: Everyone, or at least whoever wants to, gives up their books. The books are taken to a warehouse and stored there. In return the the book owner gets access to scanned copies on Google.
A federal judge has given permission for The Media Exchange Company, Inc. to put that proposal forward, as part of a settlement in Google’s deal with publishers to make millions of books available online.
The Media Exchange Company, represented by the St. Louis, Missouri, law firm of Riezman Berger, says it is putting forward the idea on behalf of book owners.
The Google settlement proposal, which will be considered by the judge at an Oct. 7 hearing by U.S. District Court Judge Denny Chin in New york, cuts a deal that includes libraries and book publishers. Riezman Berger told Chin that “just as libraries have become increasingly interested in partnering with Google to digitize their collections … so, too, individual book owners are becoming increasingly interested in digitizing their collections.”
Chin gave the law firm the right to object to the Google deal or offer its suggestions in an amicus brief . A lawyer from the law firm, representing book owners, explained how things would work.
“The person would lose physical possession of the book, like when you leave your car with a parking lot attendant,” said Emmett McAuliffe. In return, the book owner would get access to the scanned version on Google, along with the ability to search the scanned book and gain access to it wherever there is a computer or some other viewing device. McAuliffe imagines that after a number of years the books would eventually be taken from the warehouses and, with the permission of their owners, mulched in a landfill somewhere.
“It’s a green solution,” he said.
I agree with “John Luke Piccard”, and prefer my leather bound books. This whole digital book reading is disturbing. Is no one concerned about the result of staring at a computer screen for hours?
from Shop Talk:
Your new Kindle is talking — but not paying
Amazon's hotly anticipated Kindle e-reader got even more press on Wednesday, but not the good variety.
In an op-ed titled "The Kindle Swindle" that appeared in the New York Times Wednesday, the president of the Author's Guild, Roy Blount Jr., took Amazon to task for its text-to-speech function on the new Kindle that began shipping this week.
The new Kindle can read books aloud -- but unlike audio books, royalties are not paid to authors. Blount argues the technology Amazon uses to turn text into a human voice is quickly improving, and authors need to be "duly vigilant" about this new means of transmitting their work.
The Guild, which is studying the issue, has called the Kindle's speech function a "significant challenge to the publishing industry." It has recommended to its members that they bring up the issue of the Kindle when negotiating new book contracts.
Publishers certainly could contractually prohibit Amazon from adding audio functionality to its e-books without authorization, and Amazon could comply by adding a software tag that would prohibit its machine from creating an audio version of a book unless Amazon has acquired the appropriate rights. Until this issue is worked out, Amazon may be undermining your audio market as it exploits your e-books.
In his op-ed, Blount assured readers that the Guild will continue to provide free audio availability to the blind -- and pooh-poohed suggestions that parents should expect lawsuits from reading bedtime stories to their children.
For the record: no, the Authors Guild does not expect royalties from anybody doing noncommercial performances of "Goodnight Moon." If parents want to send their children off to bed with the voice of Kindle 2, however, it's another matter.
Google stole the work done at http://www.gutenberg.org and presented it as owned by google. This is such a blatant theft. The courts should shut google down, it has long since lost the purpose of a search engine and become a search engine of advertisements. Such a shame such a good, worthy idea would go to hell.