The post below was written for the June 2011 issue of the Australian Booksellers Association magazine News on Bookselling. It was written shortly after the rejection by Judge Chin of the Google Books Settlement so it’s somewhat old news. But it did remind me that we haven’t yet heard anything from the parties about what [...]

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A plan to create a vast digital library by scanning millions of books without explicit copyright permission has been thrown out in a long-awaited ruling issued today by New York District Court Judge Denny Chin. The ruling concerned the long running Google Books Settlement, a class action orginally started in 2005 when authors and publishers [...]

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Google launched its much-anticipated—and much-delayed—ebook service this week, serving up several hundred thousand commercial ebooks for sale in addition three million free, out-of-copyright books. Formerly known as Google Editions, the new Google ebooks service launched in the US with the company promising an international roll-out in “early 2011″. The Google ebooks service is a major [...]

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Apple’s grip on the media business tightened this week with the release of its latest operating system update for the iPhone OS4. And as its mobile product line expands, its operating system has dropped the “Phone” from its name to become iOS4. iOS4 is a free upgrade for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPads. It’s rumoured [...]

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Google has confirmed that it plans a “June or July” launch for its long-signalled foray into the ebook selling business. Called Google Editions, it introduces a major new competitor into the ebook market. Google Editions’ approach will differ in a couple of significant ways from current outlets including Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo and Apple. [...]

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