RSSGoogle Exploring Online Book Rentals
By Ed Oswald | Published November 14, 2005, 12:30 PM
Search giant Google is reportedly investigating methods where its users could rent online copies of books for one week, indicating that the company is continuing to flesh out ways to make its Google Print service more attractive to publishers.
According to the Wall Street Journal, a publisher contacted by Google has said users would not be able to download or print the books, although those features may be added later. Google has proposed that the fee be ten percent of the book's list price, although the publisher indicated that pricing was too low.
Google's online book service has been the target of much criticism from both authors and publishers. In September, the Authors Guild took the company to court over what it called "massive copyright infringement," followed by pressure from the Association of American Publishers last month.
However, Google is determined to press on, announcing this month that it had made 10,000 books in the public domain available online in their entirety earlier.
While the rental program is separate from the its searchable book effort, Google could potentially use the rental model to keep publishers and authors happy, as customers would be paying for the right to view the book.
A similar program was announced by Amazon.com, which consists of two services. Customers would either be able to purchase a portion of the book, or the entire book for viewing online. However, unlike the Google model, users would have "permanent" rights to view the material.
Google has refused to confirm that it is pursuing publishers for a rental service, but told the WSJ that it is exploring various "access models to help authors and publishers sell more books online."
This will work if Apple invests the iBook (oops -- already taken) ... the iReader -- which would make downloadble books desirable by providing an ultra-high resolution LCD on an ultra thin book sized player.
The nice things about books is that you can hold them with two hands and kick back anywhere you want to without a computer to read them.
I want an instant-on, book-sized, PDF reader that supports one page in my left hand, one in my right, auto-bookmark, and a page flip button =)
If Apple take the idea ... they'll release something like this and make magazine subscriptions available, tv guides, and all kinds of interesting media to make the device worth buying...
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It's the same story we heard with music people. I don't know about you but if I read something on the web and like it - I buy the physical copy anyway.
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As far as most non-fiction, imho electronic newsletters, specialty forums, & googling are the way to go nowadays...I used to be a research & book hound-- detrimental to the wallet, since i'm multi-profession(w/ specialty niches within each) & multi-hobbyist-- I have entire newspaper & magazine collections plus tens of thousands of books, some retailing for hundred$ each...
But it's now @5 years since i've bought a magazine or book. It just doesn't make sense if you depend on timely info: years ago you could read of a trend or opportunity in print & get in on it if you caught it early in its initial release & acted quickly: it would still be a year or two after the fact(count from the instant the potential writer thinks of the theme to when it finally appears in print), but apart from a local article or two, the gist of it would not have percolated to the masses yet; nowadays anything postulated as ground-breaking in a book(or even in a mag article), it's like: oh, yeah-- i remember we used to talk about that online...yes, we got in on that back then, & have since moved on to something else.
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You all make good points. EdenAdore, you've read my mind. I've been wishing for an instant-on, book-sized, PDF reader for years now... I've tried pocket PCs, the Nano, and laptops... they just don't cut it. Someone needs to release a device with a big beautiful screen that's lightweight, thin, and portable with enough memory onboard to store entire book collections. I don't care if it can fit in my pocket, I value a comfortable reading experiece more than ultra small size. It should also allow you to calibrate it (for those of us who view a lot of photographs and graphics) and hook it up to a printer for those occasions when we'd need to print a few pages for reference. I'd love to be able to take my books and magazines with me whereever I go, but the current solutions are just plain inadequate. The only thing I'd worry about is putting even more strain on my already over-tired eyeballs. I stare at a computer monitor long enough as it is.
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