In July, Google partnered with Barnes & Noble to make it’s library of free public domain ebooks available through B&N’s relaunched eBookstore. Barnes and noble is presently working on bringing a new ebook reader to the market.
Last month, Google again announced a similar deal with Sony to make the said content available on the Sony digital reader at the Sony store.
Sony recently announced the launch of a “new” breed of ebook readers: the reader touch edition, reader pocket edition, and reader daily edition ebook readers.
Yesterday, the UK’s company, interead, announced that it will be partnering with google to bring these same books to it A Cooler ebook reader via the Coolerbooks.com web site.
So far, that’s three partnerships and counting!
But, what do all these partnerships have in common? The answer, they are all competitors of the Amazon kindle, the current leader in the ebook reader industry, making 300,000 plus content available to customer from its Kindle store, plus thousands of others from numerous other sources.
…and just as expected, yesterday, Amazon countered by filing an opposition to Google’s landmark settlement with publishers and authors…claiming that it violates the anti-trust laws and would give google a monopoly over millions of “orphan works” that would gouge consumers and stifle competition if it wins court approval.
Google, in the meanwhile, is clearly focused on getting as many free books on as many non-kindle e-book readers as possible…which could be part of a grander plan to ultimately get consumers to see Google as the main source of ebooks in the future…which could be critical as the market evolves.
Google announce earlier this year that it would develop an ebook commerce platform by the end of the year which will allow publishers to sell ebooks directly to consumers.
….which makes non-kindle ebook readers the perfect vehicle for providing these free google ebooks to consumers.
Should it win the settlement, it will be authorized to digitize and sell these so-called “orphan ebooks,” which are still under copyright , without the publishers permission.
Proceeds from the sale minus google’s take would then be held in escrow by a new collection agency called the book rights registry for distribution to book owners should they show up.
For Amazon to get access to this same kind of content, it would have to find and negotiate with owners individually (totally impossible when owners are unknown) or it risk the possibility of litigation, should it decide to go at it without the owners permission.
A victory for Google could give it a huge advantage over other ebook providers, including Amazon. It will be interesting to see how the court rules.
A decision is expected by the end of the year.
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