02 June, 2009
More bloggers brought to court in US
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Google to sell new e-books online
With too many competitors following on with what brings in the green buck, is Google now adopting a different business approach: diversification?
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Posted: 02 June 2009 0714 hrs
WASHINGTON - Google plans to begin selling electronic versions of new books online this year, posing a potential challenge to market leader Amazon.
"We've consistently maintained that we're committed to helping our partners find more ways to make their books accessible and available for purchase," a Google spokesman Gabriel Stricker said in a statement on Monday.
"By end of this year, we hope to give publisher partners an additional way to sell their books by allowing users to purchase access to Partner Program books online," Stricker said.
"We want to build and support a digital book ecosystem to allow our partner publishers to make their books available for purchase from any Web-enabled device," he added.
Stricker did not provide any further details about the commercial book project, but The New York Times said the programme is separate from Google's controversial book-scanning programme.
Google reached a settlement in October with authors and publishers who had filed a class action lawsuit alleging copyright infringement over the Internet search and advertising giant's scanning of millions of books through its Google Book Search service.
Under the settlement, Google agreed to establish an independent "Book Rights Registry," which will provide revenue from sales and advertising to authors and publishers who agree to digitize their books.
The settlement mostly involves out-of-copyright and out-of-print books, however. It still needs the green light from a US district court judge and must also pass muster with the US Justice Department.
The Times said the latest Google project would allow publishers to sell digital versions of their newest books direct to consumers through Google.
This would place Google in direct competition with Amazon.com, which sells e-books online for its Kindle electronic reader, the newspaper said, adding that the move was "likely to be welcomed by publishers."
The Times quoted Tom Turvey, director of strategic partnerships at Google, as saying Google's programme would allow consumers to read books on any device with Internet access, including mobile phones, rather than being limited to dedicated reading devices like the Amazon Kindle.
Turvey also said Google would allow publishers to set retail prices, unlike Amazon, which lets publishers set wholesale prices and then sets its own prices for consumers. - AFP/ir
From ChannelNewsAsia.com; see the source article here.
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01 June, 2009
Online outpost
Are you reading this? I mean, do you understand the implication of this plan, if it pushes through? Or maybe it is already launched, and they are just letting us know. Pentagon can be so secretive…as my cousin always say, they won't show out their weapons of war if they don't have the next higher version of that artillery… and oh, so true! I say it goes for anything when it comes to the military…their 'killing field' is now online…
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Pentagon plans new unit run by 'cyberczar'
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon plans to create a new military command for cyberspace, stepping up preparations by the armed forces to conduct both offensive and defensive computer warfare.
Administration officials said the military command would complement a civilian effort to be announced by President Barack Obama on Friday that would overhaul the way the United States safeguards its computer networks.
Mr Obama, officials said, will announce the creation of a White House office — run by a "cyberczar" and reporting to both the National Security Council and the National Economic Council — that will coordinate a multi-billion-dollar effort to restrict access to government computers and protect systems that run the stock exchanges, clear global banking transactions and manage the air traffic control system.
White House officials say Mr Obama has not yet been formally presented with the Pentagon plan.
They said he would not discuss it on Friday when he announced the creation of a White House office responsible for coordinating private-sector and government defences against the thousands of cyber attacks mounted against the United States — largely by hackers but sometimes by foreign governments — every day.
The decision to create a cyber command is a major step beyond the actions taken by the Bush administration, which never resolved the question of how the government would prepare for a new era of warfare fought over digital networks.
But Mr Obama is expected to give the go ahead for the creation of the military cyber command, officials said.
A classified set of presidential directives is also expected to lay out the military's new responsibilities and how it coordinates its mission with that of the National Security Agency, where most of the expertise on digital warfare resides today.
The White House has never said whether Mr Obama embraces the idea that the United States should use cyber weapons.
The public announcement on Friday focused solely on defensive steps and the government's acknowledgment that it needs to be better organised to face the threat from foes attacking military, government and commercial online systems.
From TODAYOnline.com; see the source article here.
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