Back in 2006 publishers and authors gathered together to file a class action lawsuit against Google Books. It is easy to see why, digital downloads are threatening the music industry and books could be perceived to becoming under the same threat. Just as Google revolutionised the way we navigate the internet, they are now assisting the future of books.
Today the Twitter stream is ablaze as Mashable has spread the news of #GoogleNowOffers. Quite simply Google have announced that they have reached “Our groundbreaking agreement with authors and publishers”. In a much needed celebration you can now ‘Download Over a Million Public Domain Books from Google Book in the Open EPUB Format’.
Of course you will no doubt have noticed that Sony released their “Amazon challenger” a couple of days ago. In some circles it has been announced as the Kindle killer. You may have seen my post ‘Future of Newspapers: eReaders?’. Amazon has been working their socks off to try and release the Kindle internationally and Sony have now given them some healthy competition.
So this news of Sony releasing their Amazon challenger, Google offering 1 million books for download, has come just after Sony is to ‘back open e-book format’. Notice a link between these three stories? No doubt Google’s ePub download offerings will be an outcome with an agreement with Sony. Oh wait! Sony and Google have made a deal.
Without any question of doubt I am very excited by this news. Suddenly the Amazon store is over shadowed by Google’s hoarded book collection and the Kindle’s wireless device is now no longer unique. Sony is now said to be in discussions with newspapers to get digital subscriptions sorted. We are truly witnessing history in the making.
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