German Publishers Do It Themselves
23 Oct 2005, 11:39:46 am
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What with all the hullaballoo over Google scanning things, recent decisions by US publishers to sell books direct-to-consumers, German publishers have jumped in feet first, setting up their own network of websites to provide electronic copies to readers, allow searches of texts, and sell their own books. This move is designed to intercept other companies' attempts to do this while walking the fine line of copyright violations.
From a Capitalistic standpoint, bully to them -- when other companies come up with a rival product that interferes with your profit, produce one of your own to augment and defend your business. Competition at it's finest, right? Well, when it stymies other business -- book sellers, collectors, distributors, etc -- then there could be trouble. US publishers may need to step backwards and decide what their objective is in the industry: if they are claiming posession of more and more of the book-world for themselves under the auspices of copyright protection, then someone needs to look at what it means to the book-world itself.
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