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A fairly open and shut case of copyright infringement. The destruction of evidence eliminated any chance Usenet had of mounting a defense.

Justice Department is looking at the settlement between Google and AAP & the Authors Guild for violations of anti-trust law. The settlement gives Google a huge edge over competitors, at the same time it avoids resolving the Fair Use issues.

The Internet Archive asks the ruling judge to intervene in the settlement between Google and the AAP, claiming that Google will gain a monopoly on the use of orphan works.

A storm is brewing in the Kindle Community forum about Amazon's decision to remove e-book editions of George Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm from customers' devices.

How the reading experience differs between paper and screen.

More and more, it seems, the new books that really attract me don't come from the major trade publishers. That doesn't mean that New York isn't bringing out good books or that I don't read plenty of titles from trade houses. But I think that as people grow more sure of their tastes, they often gravitate to those specialized subgenres that particularly appeal to them, or to the more unusual or even minor work from writers they especially care about, and that usually means specialty presses.

Counterfeit books on Amazon / Spamazon.

Changes in the publishing industry not only affect those in the industry, but all readers, and the quality of the books they read.

German researchers are working on a new DRM system that would change individual words of a story to track pirated book copies back to their original owners. ... one commenter says: "for the first time in history, DRM becomes more important than the content of the book itself."

Jane Friedman created this great infographic to "describe what I see as the key 5 publishing paths, their value to authors, the potential pitfalls, and examples of each." Read more about each path on her website: http://janefriedman.com/2013/05/20/infographic-5-key-book-publishing-paths/. She also says that she will continue to develop the infographic as the publishing landscape changes. Which of these paths is the best business decision? Where and when does ethics fit in?

Is anyone surprised by these unethical practices by Amazon?  If you love books don't shop at Amazon.

ALA's 3rd supplement on ebooks and digital content now available May 24th, 2013 · by spolanka · No Comments The third supplement on ebooks and digital content from American Libraries examines both the big picture and the nitty-gritty of libraries and publishing, looking at how libraries are evolving in response to the digital revolution, from taking advantage of opportunities in content creation to advocating for equitable access to ebooks produced by the world's largest book publishers.

Okay, sure, I understand feeling the need to self-publish, and yeah, I can see how even big publishers could have bad marketing, but to take the advance and run? That just seems wrong wrong wrong to me on all levels.

So many posts from the Scholarly Kitchen could be linked here because they often write on relevant topics, but this one caught my eye. The discussion about the open access book, which will not be made open access until a year out, is particularly interesting.

Japanese author seeks to work his eBook into an app, which is a different form of publishing that is considered part of the traditional contracts.