Friday (anemic) Midday Links: Class is certified in action against Google
Publishing NewsAmazon / Google / intellectual property / lawsuits21 Comments
My roundup today is anemic in part because the news is slow right now (which is a good thing) but also because I’ve been spending many a late night working on this new fangled thing: http://releases.dearauthor.com/
NY judge grants class status in Google book fight – BusinessWeek – “A federal judge granted class certification to authors challenging Google Inc. over its plans for the world’s largest digital library Thursday, finding it more sensible to have a single legal action than scores of individual lawsuits.
Judge Denny Chin said in a written ruling that class action is “more efficient and effective than requiring thousands of authors to sue individually.” He added that requiring each author to sue Google would risk disparate results in nearly identical lawsuits and exponentially increase the cost of litigation.”Business Week
Personal Note: This surprises me given that Chin had indicated that the class was over broad in the denial of the settlement. Nonetheless going forward will be a good thing in that the issue regarding fair use will be brought before the court once again. Any clarification on fair use is a good thing.
Amazon Slaps Patent on E-Gifting | Digital Book World – “on has patented a method of e-gifting where a buyer selects and purchases an item that can later be downloaded by the gift recipient upon receipt of a notification. Kindle Christmas 2013 may have just gotten a whole lot more interesting.”DBW
Personal Note: This is such a ridiculous use of the patent system.
Samhain Publishing :: The List – “So you’ve read (and loved) the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy by E.L. James and wonder what else is out there? Samhain Publishing is happy to help. See below for a list hand-picked by our editors especially for Fifty Shades fans!” Samhain Publishing
A few titles include
- Rock Me by Cherrie Lynn
- Colters’ Woman by Maya Banks
- Colters’ Lady by Maya Banks
- Colters’ Daughter by Maya Banks
- Tied Up, Tied Down by Lorelei James
- Night is Darkest by Jayne Rylon
- Razor’s Edge by Jayne Rylon
- Table for Three by Lainey Reese
Deals
- Through a Glass Darkly by Karleen Koen * $0.00 * A | BN | K | S
- Betting Hearts by Dee Tenorio * $0.00 * A | BN | K | S
- The Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale * $0.99 * A | BN | K | S
- Faerie Wars (Faerie Wars Chronicles) by Herbie Brennan * $0.99 * A | BN | K | S
Oooh! Shiny! Look at that. LOVE this tool, Jane!
The Amazon gift certificate thing is as ridiculous as their one-click patent. I use the gift feature at ARe a lot. Oh well, I’ll just give friends regular gift certificates with a suggestion of what to buy and they can spend the money on the book of their choice.
Oops, hit post too soon. Meant to add I love the New Releases page.
Jane you are one hard working godess. Thanks. The New Release page is gorgeous!
How can Amazon patent giving a specific ebook? You can do the same thing on Kobo now. Does that mean they’ll be forced to take away that gifting option? (I’m sure you can gift elsewhere, but I’m only familiar with how it works on Kobo.)
@Suzanna Medeiros: It looked to me like the main difference between Amazon’s gifting feature and what I’ve seen elsewhere is that the gift giver doesn’t pay until after the gift receiver downloads the gift. I guess kind of like sending a check and the money doesn’t get taken out of your account until after the person gets your check and deposits or cashes it.
Love the gorgeous new release tool. Thanks Jane, for another fun way to not get any work done!!
The release tool is AWESOME!
Book of a Thousand Days is just perfect! It even has a bit of a romance, but mostly it is a female empowering story for a servant (who takes care of her lady through the most trying circumstances).
The new releases pages are brilliant. Thank you for it. Just thank you.
Oh my, that new fangled thing is just awesome! How ever will I read the books I already own when there’s so much shinier stuff on there? *despairing sigh*
Love the new releases site! Looked at the Mystery & Detective titles and liked what I saw there. Thanks for all your hard work.
The new releases thing: adding years to my reading experience and hitting my budget hard, but I’m thrilled anyway:) Thanks for putting everything in one place for us!
Love, love, LOVE the new releases toy. Brilliant!
That new releases tool is really cool. Probably you want to be done working on it, but do you think it’d be possible to add a filter for languages? I noticed you had some Spanish titles.
Wow, Jane. That new-fangled thing is very impressive. Thank you.
Love the new releases page. I suspect my wallet won’t though! :)
Adding my voice to the chorus of those thrilled about the new releases tool. Thank you so much!
I did notice some Elizabeth Peters books in the historical section that, if memory serves, are actually contemorary mysteries: The Murders Of Richard III, The Camelot Caper, The Copenhagen Connection, The Love Talker, and Summer Of The Dragon.
I second the rec for Book of a Thousand Days (although I hope they’ve fixed the crappy Kindle version since I bought mine–it was one of the most error-ridden ebooks I’ve ever read).
And thanx for the new thingy. :-)
Love the new release tool. Could you add Kelley Hunter and Dee Ernst? And all my other favourite authors in the world, genres notwithstanding?
That patent sounds like the Steam system – so I hope it won’t last.