News Roundup: Google's Book Scanning, Kindle's Future Path, Authorship Increases Exponentially, Amazon Takes on "Amazon Tax," 5 DRM Messes

A Glimpse into Google’s Book Scanning

Google doesn’t divulge specifics about its proprietary book scanning set-up, but the Associated Press offers a brief look into the manual scanning process used for old/fragile titles. (Continue reading)

Kindle’s All-Encompassing Future Path

Jeff Nolan writes about the path of the Kindle:

It’s clear that [Jeff] Bezos sees a day when any and all content can be delivered to a Kindle and not only won’t Amazon have to store inventory, they also won’t have to ship anything but the Kindle itself to support their book business. In that light, the Kindle totally fits and is an impressive disruptive strategy to boot. Having said that, we have 550 years of mechanical printing to overcome and in terms of simplicity and cost, it’s hard to beat a hard copy book.

Book Reading Down, Book Writing Up

In a New York Times Sunday Book Review essay, Rachel Donadio notes the interesting discrepancy between book reading and book writing. Namely, people aren’t reading, but they’re certainly doing a lot of writing. (Continue reading)

Amazon Challenges New York’s “Amazon Tax”

As expected, Amazon is challenging New York’s recently passed sales tax statute. From Amazon’s filed complaint (pdf):

Because some independently operated, New York-based websites post advertisements with links to Amazon and are compensated for these advertisements, Amazon is now presumed to have engaged in “solicitation” under this statue … despite the fact that Amazon lacks any physical presence in New York and that no solicitation by Amazon actually exists. This presumption is effectively irrebuttable. Accordingly, Amazon seeks a declaratory judgment that the Statute is invalid …

Charting the Pitfalls of DRM

In the wake of MSN Music’s authorization decision, Steve O’Hear from last100 looks at five DRM-based businesses that left customers high and dry. (Continue reading)

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