Group items tagged

Abstract This paper argues that the evolution of e-book technology is related to the penetrating impact of networks and information technology on society. It defines the concept of e-book and describes some aspects of e-book technology. By focusing on book production processes, the paper examines what probable consequences the development of e-books and a global network economy will have for publishers and book industries. E-books, along with other electronic formats, will trigger major changes as the digital products and distribution channels will force the logic of the network economy on the book publishing industry.

Yochai Benkler, a Yale University law professor and author of the new book "The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom" (Yale University Press), has gone even farther: his entire book is available - free - as a download from his Web site. Between 15,000 and 20,000 people have accessed the book electronically, with some of them adding comments and links to the online version.

Two million out-of-copyright books that have been scanned by Google could come back into limited printed form after the search giant signed a deal with On Demand Books, the company that makes the Espresso…

Google Book Search is offering a new service that lets customers print new physical copies of rare and out-of-print books from its ebook library. The books will be printed-to-order at local bookstores and sold for under $10.

E-book collections, such as ebrary and Netlibrary, provided an economical opportunity to fill gaps in our print collection. With an institutional focus on distance education, e-books seemed to provide the obvious solution for how to serve users who will never come to campus. With our traditional users taking to e-journals immediately, we thought e-books would be a win-win solution. However, use statistics indicated that our e-book collections remain underutilized.

Google Books launched an initiative to help authors and publishers discover new audiences for books they've made available for free under Creative Commons (CC) licenses. Rightsholders who want to distribute their CC-licensed books more widely can choose to allow readers around the world to...

A new attempt to speed up book publishing.

It is a good news for Internet users, especially google users to see the google books under cc licenses. The more rights of viewers to see the books, the more criticize and ideas come out. then more crticize, the more critics criticize, the better the information is shared by authors and readers. The better the information is about how to improve the books, the more improvement of content is made.

e-book market is threatened by unfettered proliferation of e-book platforms, formats, and DRMs. Some service providers support multiple e-book platforms and DRMs. They can adopt this type of model, but do publishers agree to support it in their licensing agreements?

The man from Sony smiled sheepishly when asked whether his two new e-book reader models are superior to conventional books.

A reflection on the purpose of copyright related to the Google Books Settlement.

Google has tried to made a deal with those opposing it's Google Books deal (such as Amazon and Microsoft) by offering to allow them to resell books from it's site. Amazon has rejected the idea.

With the publishing industry in freefall, what is going to happen to science fiction books? I asked Tor Books senior editor and manager of SF and fantasy Patrick Nielsen Hayden. He thinks the changes coming will be slow but weird.

"For the past five hundred years, humans have used print - the book and its various page-based cousins - to move ideas across time and space. Radio, cinema and television emerged in the last century and now, with the advent of computers, we are combining media to forge new forms of expression. For now, we use the word "book" broadly, even metaphorically, to talk about what has come before - and what might come next."

While Steve Jobs just told the New York Times' David Pogue that Apple isn't interested in creating a single-purpose eBook reader and that he doesn't think that eBooks are a big enough market right now, one eBook-like format has already made it into the iTunes store: a comic book. Tyrese Gibson's Mayhem! is now available, together with one song, as an iTunes LP album for $1.99 (iTunes link). Mayhem! was first released as a three-issue mini-series earlier last month

My question will be: what is the difference between the multimedia ebook and the mini laptop?

Sony and Amazon are poised to take opposite sides on the Google books settlement.

The blows being traded over Google's $125m deal to digitise books are getting fiercer by the day

A proposed settlement between Google and book publishers and authors will give huge new advantages to students, minorities and disabled people, supporters said Thursday.

HarperCollins negotiates 6 figure books deals.

Google wants to make e-books available to all devices with web browsers, from mobile phones to desktop computers, challenging Amazon's Kindle e-book reader which forces buyers to buy books through the company