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Thursday, August 02, 2012
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Justice Department Responds to Ebook Lawsuit Objections
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by George H. Pike
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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.
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Census Bureau API Lets Developers Create Custom Apps
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The U.S. Census Bureau launched a new online service that makes key demographic, socioeconomic, and housing statistics more accessible than ever before. The Census Bureau's first-ever public Application Programming Interface (API) allows developers to design web and mobile apps to explore or learn more about America's changing population and economy.
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Vook Launches New Features on Ebook Publishing Platform
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Vook, a cloud-based ebook publishing platform, announced new features: a new Vook Store, personalized eBook Webpages, and the ability for authors to sell ebooks via a browser reader and keep 85% of their royalties. Vook also announced new pricing. To automatically distribute to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, and get the final files, it's a one-time only fee of $99. For that $99, Vook will give you your files, sell your title through its eTailer accounts, provide a sales tracking dashboard, and pay authors 100% of their net royalties from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and iBooks.
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Chinese Ebooks From Apabi Coming to EBSCO Discovery Service
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EBSCO Publishing (EBSCO) and Apabi signed an agreement allowing metadata from Apabi's ebook collection to be added to the Base Index of EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS). The ebooks from Apabi are designed to offer a vast collection in a variety of subject areas to researchers in higher education, public libraries, corporations, and government.
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Expand Your Search Engine Options
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by Paula J. Hane
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One of the most popular bylined pieces in our NewsBreaks/NewsLink Spotlight collection has been my April 1, 2010 article, "Alternative Search Engines Offer Rich Options." Since things have changed considerably in the last 2-plus years, I decided it was time to look at what some of the most useful options now are for search engines. While Google continues its domination of the search market, some enterprising folks continue to seek out alternatives—for additional features, interface preferences, spam avoidance, or privacy and security reasons.
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