DOJ Responds to Ebook Lawsuit Objections in Today’s ITI NewsLink

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NewsBreaks

Justice Department Responds to Ebook Lawsuit Objections

by George H. Pike

In a strongly worded document, the U.S. Department of Justice responded to public comments made objecting to the department's proposed settlement of price fixing charges levied against Apple, Inc., HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, and four other publishers. The charges arose out of an alleged scheme between Apple and the publishers to establish an "agency model" of ebook pricing, with a goal of defeating Amazon.com's widespread ebook discounting. Under this model, the publishers agree to follow the same pricing models in their sales to all ebook vendors including Amazon. According to the Justice Department, the scheme resulted in higher ebook prices and was a violation of federal antitrust laws.

Weekly News Digests

NEH Announces Award to Build Digital 'Library of the Future'

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) announced a $1 million award to support the incorporation and launch of the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA), a groundbreaking project that seeks to digitize and bring together the contents of our nation's libraries and archives, and make them freely available to all online.

New Home for Nature Network Blogs

Nature Publishing Group (NPG) announced the launch of SciLogs.com, a new English-language blogging network for scientists and science communicators. Nature Network bloggers will be among the first to take up their new home on the WordPress-based site.

Thomson Reuters to Acquire MarkMonitor

The Intellectual Property & Science business of Thomson Reuters announced that it signed a definitive agreement to purchase MarkMonitor, a leader in online brand protection. The completion of the acquisition is subject to standard regulatory approvals. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

NewsLink Spotlight

The Challenging Landscape of Ebooks in Libraries

by Paula J. Hane

The overall growth in digital content of all kinds, and in particular, the growing importance and acceptance of ebooks, has clearly presented great opportunities for libraries, as well as plenty of challenges. Many libraries are coping with decreasing budgets while at the same time experiencing increased demand for content and services. Challenges include limited availability of ebooks from publishers, increasing demands for tech support with ebook readers and mobile devices, cumbersome borrowing processes, and minimal discoverability of ebook content. Two recent reports shed some light on the current situation, providing interesting statistics and perspectives.

Conference Connection

CONFERENCE CALENDAR

March 7–11, The 9th Health Informatics in Africa Conference (HELINA 2014)
Place: Accra, Ghana
Sponsor/Organizer: Ghana Health Informatics Association (GHIA)
URL: conf.helina-online.org/index.php/2014/oct2014

March 10, ALPSP Training Course: Developing Open Access and Hybrid Journals
Place: London
Sponsor/Organizer: Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP)
URL: alpsp.org/Ebusiness/Meetings/Meeting.aspx?ID=429

March 12–13, Conference of the Bells
Place: Milan
Sponsor/Organizer: EXPO Milano 2015
URL: convegnostelline.it

March 14–18, The 18th ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW 2015)
Place: Vancouver, British Columbia
Sponsor/Organizer: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
URL: cscw.acm.org/2015

March 20, ALPSP Training Course: Financial Management in Journals Publishing
Place: London
Sponsor/Organizer: Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP)
URL: alpsp.org/Ebusiness/Meetings/Meeting.aspx?ID=433

March 21–23, The 5th International Conference on Information Systems and Technologies (ICIST’15)
Place: Istanbul, Turkey
Sponsor/Organizer: Organizing committee
URL: ijist.net/ICIST15

March 24, ALPSP Training Course: Data Protection: Compliance Issues for Publishers
Place: London
Sponsor/Organizer: Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP)
URL: alpsp.org/Ebusiness/Meetings/Meeting.aspx?ID=441

March 25–28, ACRL 2015 Conference
Place: Portland, Ore.
Sponsor/Organizer: Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL)
URL: conference.acrl.org

March 26–28, The Third International Conference on E-Technologies and Business on the Web (EBW2015)
Place: Paris
Sponsor/Organizer: Society of Digital Information and Wireless Communications (SDIWC)
URL: sdiwc.net/conferences/ebw2015

March 28–29, The 3rd International Conference on Information Technology and Science (ICITS 2015)
Place: Pattaya, Thailand
Sponsor/Organizer: Organizing committee
URL: icits.org

March 29–30, The Second Annual Library Publishing Forum
Place: Portland, Ore.
Sponsor/Organizer: Library Publishing Coalition (LPC)
URL: librarypublishing.org/events/lpforum15

March 29–April 2, The 37th European Conference on Information Retrieval (ECIR 2015)
Place: Vienna
Sponsor/Organizer: Austrian Computer Society and the Faculty of Informatics at the Vienna University of Technology
URL: ecir2015.ifs.tuwien.ac.at/wp

March 30–31, The Third Annual HTRC (HathiTrust Research Center) UnCamp
Place: Ann Arbor, Mich.
Sponsor/Organizer: HTRC
URL: hathitrust.org/htrc_uncamp2015

March 30–April 1, The UKSG 38th Annual Conference and Exhibition
Place: Glasgow, Scotland
Sponsor/Organizer: UKSG
URL: uksg.org/event/conference15

... View our complete conference calendar here.

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ITI Books Blog – booksblog.infotoday.com – news, observations, and commentary from the authors, editors, and publishers of Information Today, Inc.'s many book offerings.

ITI Conference Blog – libconf.com – covering ITI's library conferences worldwide.

Library Stuff – librarystuff.net – the library blog dedicated to resources for keeping current and professional development, written by Steven M. Cohen.

InfoToday Europe Blog – infotodayeurope.com – The latest news, analysis and opinion on the information industry in Europe and the UK.

Business of Video blog – blog.streamingmedia.com – Daily posts about the online video industry, business trends and analysis, market data, and research as well as the online video business models in the media and entertainment, broadcast, publishing, advertising and enterprise industries.

destinationCRM Blog – destinationcrmblog.com – a blog from the editors of CRM magazine, dedicated to providing Customer Relationship Management information in a timely manner to connect decision makers and providers.

SpeechTech Blog – speechtechblog.com – updates on speech technology and its applications in daily life. Covers everything from ASR to VUI, with lots of links, threads, and even a few pictures thrown in for good measure.

This newsletter is published by Information Today, Inc.
Editor: Brandi Scardilli
Website: http://www.infotoday.com/NewsLink
Email: bscardilli@infotoday.com