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English PEN says U.K. libel law puts free speech at risk; a three-day conference devoted to the Google settlement revision begins today in New York City; John Steinbeck has inspired a Chicago ballet; Canadians are still without a Kindle to call their own; and other news.
Justice Department officials supervise the new Google Book Search settlement; independent booksellers in the U.K. claw market share from high street chains; the new permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy says Nobel deliberations are too “Eurocentric”; and other news.
New York City plans a fitting memorial for Frank McCourt; the Kindle may finally debut in the U.K. this month; Disney rolls out an electronic storybook site; Paige M. Gutenborg starts work at Harvard; and other news.
A small print-on-demand firm can go ahead with its antitrust suit against Amazon; the EU ponders its answer to Google Book Search; Shakespeare’s grave gets a much-needed overhaul; Banned Books Week leaves its mark on the best-seller lists; and other news.
In the first major overseas legal challenge to its massive book-scanning project, Google’s French division was hit last week with a copyright infringement lawsuit. Publishing group La Martinière, backed by the editors association Syndicat national de l’édition (SNE) and the writers union Société des gens de lettres (SGDL), is asking a Paris court to force the Internet giant to halt its digitization of protected works and to levy a fine of eighteen million euros (about $26 million) as well as a per diem fine of one hundred thousand euros ($146,000).
A month after signing a distribution deal with the Barnes & Noble eBookstore, online publishing platform Smashwords announced on Tuesday that it has reached a similar arrangement with Sony. Authors who upload their work to Smashwords through Sony’s new “Publisher Portal” can expect to see it added to the Sony e-book catalogue in as little as ten days, the company said.
About a week shy of its first anniversary, online magazine the Daily Beast is getting into the book business. On Monday, editor Tina Brown announced a joint venture with Perseus Books to release a series of short, topical e-books quickly followed by paperback editions. The new imprint, Beast Books, plans to publish three to five titles in the next year.
Two of the country’s most prominent newspapers announced significant changes to their book coverage last week. The Chicago Tribune not only reformatted its Saturday books page but officially launched Printers Row, a literary blog featuring expanded content and contributions from readers. The San Francisco Chronicle, meanwhile, scrapped its usual best-seller list on Sunday in favor of lists provided by the Northern California Independent Bookseller Association.
