Friday Midday News and Deal Links: Ebook Sales Up and Down

News

Google has filed its motion to dismiss in the Google Book Settlement.  The motion is based on a legal term known as standing.  Not everyone can sue anyone else.  You must have “standing” and Google is arguing that only the individual authors and artists have standing, not groups such as the Authors Guild.

In a copyright case, standing comes from ownership. Only the “legal or beneficial owner” of the exclusive right the defendant has allegedly infringed has standing to sue. Since the Authors Guild doesn’t own the copyrights in its members’ books, it can’t sue in its own behalf.

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Hal Roberts posts that SOPA advocates are using his research incorrectly.  His research on DNS filtering does not support SOPA and he tries to set the record straight.

Opponents of SOPA have argued that the DNS filtering, even though it will have a number of harmful effects on the technical and political structure of the Internet, will not be effective in preventing users from accessing the blocked sites. Mr. Castro cites our research as evidence that SOPA’s mandate to filter DNS will be effective. …. His presumption that people will work as hard or harder to access political content than they do to access entertainment content deeply misunderstands how and why most people use the Internet. Far more users in open societies use the Internet for entertainment than for political purposes; it is unreasonable to assume different behaviors in closed societies.

But facts aren’t driving SOPA.  Emotion is.

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October sales results are out and it shows a decline in ebook sales from August to October. According to Publishers’ Marketplace, the ebook sales for August were $80.3 million and ebook sales in October were $72.8 million.  Still, that is enough for an 82% increase over last October ebook sales and every other segment of publishing declined in sales in October including mass market which is down a whopping 33.7%.

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Lenticular clouds West yorkshire

Lenticular clouds have appeared in West Yorkshire.  Amazing gallery to be seen here.

Deals

These are Amazon Big Deals and other than the Miriam Minger titles, the deals expire today. The lowered prices may not be reflected at other sites but the links are provided as a courtesy.

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