At the same time (and perhaps not by coincidence) that Google relaunches its Google Print For Libraries program, Amazon announces its intention to sell online book content by the page, and to offer paid memberships that give customers online access to their purchased books. The wire service releases of this announcement are dripping with pleased quotes from publishing groups ("The Amazon programs are the way copyright is supposed to work"—head of the Authors Guild) and from Jeff Bezos ("We feel strongly that copyright holders get to make these decision."). In Google's face, y'all.
Amazon Announces Pay-Per-Page Program
Reader Comments
(Page 1)2. I don't see why Google is wasting money scanning the same books that the Open Content Alliance will scan - they should join the Open Content Alliance and contribute their public domain scans to the alliance - even if it does help out their competitors.
Posted at 4:42AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Joshua Prowse
1. This reminds me too much of the old Divx model. I don't consumers don't like pay per view. How much would a page cost anyway? A nickel is my guess, maybe a penny.
Posted at 4:42AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Nicholas