While not completely against the revised agreement the BA said: “The BA would have far preferred UK titles and orphan works to have been excluded, but as it seems this is not going to be the case, the Association is pleased that a number of considerable concessions, at least, have been made following our representations.”

(Via The Bookseller)

Additionally, audio books will be available later this year on the 360 platform.

Digital Developments will focus on where digital changes have taken publishing so far and what further changes can be expected in the future. The seminar will also offer practical tools and strategies to authors, booksellers, and publishers alike, on how to take the next step into the world of digital and social media.

The half-day event will feature a keynote address from me and a panel discussion featuring Ivan O’Brien, Susan Carleton and Vanessa Robertson. It is going to be wonderful.

You can find more information here.

Hi Paul!

Just returned from Frankfurt. Didn’t have internet access while I was there (the Messe wanted me to pay 49€ per day for wifi, but I wasn’t that desperate), so I’m glad to be home.

I had an opportunity to check out three e-reader booths while I was there: IREX (with their two readers), Bookeen, and the new German txtr. I got some photos, too. I spoke with the folks at the different booths. My interactions were, I think, indicative of the differences between the companies themselves. At IREX, I spoke with Willem Endhoven, who is the VP of Marketing and Business Development of this Dutch company. It felt more like a formal interview than just a conversation, and he got a bit defensive when I asked him about the future of dedicated e-readers. He basically told me that if reading is what’s important to the consumer, than a dedicated e-reader will provide a high-quality reading experience. The US-only and consumer-aimed IREX is very sleek and appealing, though I’m not a stylus fan. Back in August, IREX and the Barnes & Noble eBookstore announced a partnership, but I wonder how that will be impacted by the introduction of the Nook. IREX says their new focus will be a color e-reader for 2011 (which they will need to pull forward if they want to remain competitive). Their professional reader is huge – rather like Bookeen’s old school reader that they use as an example of how far they’ve come. It’s very cool that users can hand-write notes with it (an “unending notepad”) and use it as a tool (for folks in the book trade, academics, etc.) plus has wifi and Bluetooth connectivity, but it costs 699€ and isn’t very attractive. Still, it had many of the capabilities I’d like to see contained within a sleeker, smaller, slimmer exterior. Wait, what am I talking about again? Hmm. Anyway, one of the first lines in the handout I was given: “The start of IREX Technologies in 2004 is so inextricably linked to the invention of the first commercially produced eReader that the stories must be told as one.” Something IREX should consider, in regards to their marketing materials, is that no one really cares who did what when. We just want to know who will do what next. In any case, the booth seemed quite busy when I stopped by, though I’m not sure who was working vs visiting. Still, Willem assured me that it was practically dead compared to earlier traffic.
At Bookeen, I spoke with the laidback co-founder Laurent Picard about their e-reader, e-books, and publishing in general. I really enjoyed my chat with him. Theirs is a slim reader, but I think calling it “pocket friendly” is a stretch. Or maybe I just have small pockets. Anyway, I was happy to come across a reader that is available in a variety of stores around the world. They’re also looking at creating a color reader and adding 3G and wifi capabilities. Laurent seemed very realistic about the future of dedicated readers, saying that at least for now they offer a much better reading experience than the smartphones. There wasn’t anyone else at the booth when I walked up, but there were a few interested folks there by the time I left. Still, it seemed like they had less traffic (not a scientific assessment, by any means) than IREX.

Two days later, I had a chance to check out the German txtr. While IREX and Bookeen had their booths in the tech hall, txtr wisely had theirs set up in what I thoughts was the children’s book and comics hall. But that was a great place to set up if they wanted a ton of German foot traffic (since the txtr is currently only available in Germany). When I stopped by on Sunday, there was a constant stream of people checking it out. I was glad to find a booklet in English, and the person I spoke with (Priska Herger) was great to speak with. I got the feeling that the people behind this reader really are book enthusiasts and are also young (mostly 20s-early 30s, I’m guessing, though I really don’t know). Even though txtr doesn’t have a touch screen (like the new Nook), you do use a swiping motion to scroll through the pages (something I really liked). I had some difficulty doing that, though, and I could see others were having some trouble with it, too. Understandably, this is an early demo and these won’t be available for sale (within Germany) until December, and I’m confident that they’ll get the kinks worked out. It seemed very intuitive (more so than the IREX) to use. The cost is 319€, but (again) Germany-only. Of the e-readers I saw, this one was the most exciting. Once I got home, I checked out txtr.com, which is the start of what seems like a social network for e-readers (as in, the people who read e-books). A few things I read in their brochure that are rather convincing and compelling:

“the txtr reader transports traditional literate culture into the digital world of today.”

“txtr reader is not against the traditional book, but for the act of reading.”

And in regards to my question about dedicated devices: “txtr reader is for people who concentrate on the essential.” Or “Sophisticated users intuitively prefer the expert solution to the all-round device.” (Though that makes me wonder if, perhaps, I am unsophisticated.)

All of Hall 3.0 (where the txtr booth was located) was packed, and the space around their booth was no different. I’m not sure how well the txtr would hold up against the e-readers already available in the US, but distribution in the US is a goal. I’m all for it, since I like this one and hope that the price of readers will decrease as more options are introduced. (Honestly, though, I’m in Europe, so products being available in the US doesn’t mean much to me.)

Cheers,
rachel

Editor’s note: Rachel is an American living in Estonia and you can find her blog, Fade Theory, here.

The Commission will start work on this next year and look into, also, the status of orphan books. For a fuller explanation of the Commission’s work take a look at the article.

About 11,000 publications, 12 million pages, were scanned from the EU archives and the library now consists or 140,000 publications, with 1,500 digital ones being added each year. You can find the details here.

This is an ideal reference for anyone interested in, or following, this topic.

The internal market Commissioner, Charlie McCreevy, agreed with Reding and called for a pan-European system of book registries. You can read more here. This is certainly setting up the mechanism for a conflict with the Google settlement that may have to be resolved through diplomatic means eventually.

“The German government has a clear position: copyrights have to be protected in the internet,” Merkel said, adding that there were “considerable dangers” for copyright protection in the internet.

Reuters adds the following sentence omitted by The Guardian: “That’s why we reject the scanning in of books without any copyright protection — like Google is doing. The government places a lot of weight on this position on copyrights to protect writers in Germany.”

You can read the full report at The Guardian or at the Reuters link above. In addition, as The Guardian and Reuters also mention, Google has been sued in France by an association of French publishers for violating their French copyrights in the digitization of their books. Substantial damages are requested.

No matter what we may think of the settlement, the international implications of the settlement are growing.

In her speech today at Brussels, she laid down her immediate priorities for a digital economy. They include boosting digital services, overcoming market fragmentation on business model and having better coordination on copyright issues within EU. She also emphasised on having a policy framework to prevent Europe from losing out to the US with regard to book digitisation.

Reding backed the Digital Single Market for consumers, creative industries and internet service providers, which is promoted by the European Digital Media Association (EDiMA) in its White Paper on future of the internet policy, published in June this year.

French group La Martinière has become the first publisher worldwide to sue Google in court, demanding €15m (£13.8m) in damages for copyrighted books digitised by the search engine without permission.

The publisher is also seeking a penalty of €100,000 per day, and €3m for prejudice to its image. The trial opened in France on 24th September and a ruling is expected by 18th December at the latest.

La Martinière, which is backed by French publishers association Syndicat National de l’Edition (SNE) and the French Writers Union, Syndicat des Gens de Lettres, (SGDL) estimates that the search engine has illegally digitised between 6,000 and 9,000 of its titles.

Gale, part of Cengage Learning, along with The British Library and the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), have made nineteenth-century British newspapers available on the internet. The database, known as “British Newspapers, 1800-1900″ and available at http://newspapers.bl.uk/blcs/, gives users access to over two million newspaper pages from 49 different national and regional newspapers from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Chosen by leading experts and academics, the newspapers represent a cross-section of nineteenth-century society and contain illustrated materials on a variety of topics, including business, sports, politics and entertainment.

Another battle between Google and the publishing industry begins today, as a court case taken by France’s Publishers Association and Society of Authors kicks off in Paris.

According to AFP, the plaintiffs are contesting Google’s 2005 campaign to digitise books without the prior authorisation of publishers or authors. The complaint was first filed three years ago.

Herve de la Martiniere, whose eponymous publishing group controls the Seuil publishing house, told the newswire: “We need to be able to deal with Google on a solid legal basis . . . It is unacceptable that someone would arrogantly take your books and digitise them without asking.”

He estimated between 3,000-4,000 works published by his group had been digitised by Google without his consent.

You can find the rest of the story here.

Technorati Tags:
copyright, Europe, France, Google, Google book settlement, Paul Biba, TeleRead

Considered the largest initiative of its kind in helping to enhance repository development worldwide, DRIVER is a multi-phase effort whose vision and primary objective is to create a cohesive, robust and flexible, pan-European infrastructure for digital repositories, offering sophisticated services and functionalities for researchers, administrators and the general public.

DRIVER has established a network of relevant experts and Open Access repositories. DRIVER-II will consolidate these efforts and transform the initial testbed into a fully functional, state-of-the art service, extending the network to a larger confederation of repositories. DRIVER is integral to the suite of electronic infrastructures that have emerged in the worldwide GÉANT network and is hence funded under the e-Infrastructures call of the European Commission’s 7th framework programme. It aims to “… optimise the way the e-Infrastructure is used to store knowledge, add value to primary research data and information making secondary research more effective, provide a valuable asset for industry, and help bridging research and education.”

For more articles about DRIVER check this Resource Shelf article.

Technorati Tags:
Europe, libraries, library, Paul Biba, TeleRead

Hamburg – The Austrian National Library in Vienna is a pioneering force in Europe for the digitisation of books, newspapers and other materials.

By order and at the expense of Austrian foundation Socrates, the Hamburg based docWORKS specialist CCS Content Conversion Specialists has digitised the “Wiener Zeitung” (Viennese Newspaper) with all its supplements: “Wiener Abendpost” (Vienna Evening Mail), “Amtsblatt” (Gazette) and “Zentralanzeiger für Handel und Gewerbe” (Official Trade and Commerce Bulletin). The Wiener Zeitung is part of the stock of the Austrian National Library. The project covers the volumes from 1909 to 1923 and has a total of 100.000 pages. The Wiener Zeitung is the oldest Austrian newspaper that is still being published today, having started in 1703 as the “Wienerisches Diarium” (Viennese Daily). Its Gothic type represents a tough challenge for OCR (optical character recognition). The digitising process includes automatic analysis of the papers’ layout (captions, columns etc) – this will later enable searches to be performed within an article.

“Newspapers very much reflect not just international, but also regional and local history, politics and culture as well as ethical and social concerns of the time. With Europe ever expanding, there is a strong renewed interest in one’s local region. No other source covers the diversity of regional information available better than newspapers.

Digitisation provides improved accessibility to the volumes of the Wiener Zeitung for a large portion of the population. Access is fast and easy, offering worldwide and around-the-clock information retrieval” says Bettina Kann, Main Department Director of the Digital Library at the Austrian National Library, explaining why the Wiener Zeitung was selected and the demand for digital access to its volumes.

A temporary online portal has been launched to access the Wiener Zeitung: http://onb-ccs.dlconsulting.com. It is test version, using web delivery software Veridian. This software allows for easy searchability and display of newspapers, as well as online access to other digitised printed media such as magazines, books, manuscripts, research papers etc.

Thanks to Resource Shelf for the link.

Technorati Tags:
Europe, libraries, Paul Biba, TeleRead, Austria, newspapers