Google v Authors Guild: a victory for readers' right to choose

A Manhattan court case about digitisation rights has brought books and the web a step closer togetherOn 14 November, after eight years of wrangling, Judge Denny Chin of the Manhattan district court finally ruled in the case of Google versus the Authors Guild. At issue was Google's scanning and digitisation of more than 20m books from libraries across the world, but at the heart of the case was question of what constitutes fair use in the age of the internet.For the Authors Guild, it was unquestioningly a violation of publishers' and authors' rights to copy their work wholesale and make "snippets" of it available online. For Google, and for many scholars and librarians who petitioned on its behalf, the indexing of those works is transformative, and adds to, rather than reduces, their value. After much deliberation, the courts have come to agree with the latter – it is, after all, what search engines have been doing to the web since it originated.There is a point at which we come to assume that a text is first and foremost digital. We've already passed that point for much of the media around us, understanding that even the letters we receive in the post are printed from digital "originals". Newspapers currently inhabit a mid-point: we're still unsure whether the printed or the website edition is the "true" version.That point is fast approaching for the book, and we are choosing the form that it will take. Essentially, the book is becoming more like the web, opened up to... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2013-11-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
News tagged with: #search engines #fast approaching #long term

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Bloomsbury launches online service for unpublished authors

Bloomsbury is to offer online services to help unpublished authors learn about the publishing... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-12-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Google’s Admeld Deal Gets the Green Light

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[ AdWeek | 2011-12-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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WHS launches new £169.99 Kobo e-reader

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Wed, 23/11/2011 - 08:30 W H Smith has launched a colour WiFi Kobo e-reader, priced £169.99 and with a multimedia touch screen and social media tie-in. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-11-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Digital Readers 11 Percent of Total Magazine Audience

For those who still doubt that magazine content has a place in the digital world, new data proves magazines’ growing digital prowess. Continue reading at Folio Magazine

[ Folio Magazine | 2011-11-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Google+ Pages to Test Third-Party Social Media Tools

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[ AdWeek | 2011-11-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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E-readers Are Big Winners in Tablet Wars

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[ PC World | 2011-11-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Google E-Books comes to Canada

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[ The Bookseller | 2011-11-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Yale has a rummage through authors' books

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[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Meredith Increases Dividend by 50% and Authorizes a $100 Million Stock Repurchase

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[ Folio Magazine | 2011-10-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Subtext Livens Up Ebooks With Author Commentary and Social Reading

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[ AllThingsD | 2011-10-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ PC World | 2011-10-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ AdWeek | 2011-10-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Somper sets up author training company

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[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Authors to Get Sales Data From Three Big Publishers

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[ The New York Times | 2011-10-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Pearson adds free learning management tools to Google Apps for Education

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[ Betanews | 2011-10-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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FBF: Bricks and mortar shops need own e-readers

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[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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WHS partners with Kobo to launch e-reader

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[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Weltbild and Hugendubel launch new ebook reader

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[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The New York Times | 2011-10-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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