Online bookstore Amazon is partnering with the University of Michigan to make 400,000 rare out-of-copyright books available to buy on Amazon’s site. Amazon's print-on-demand division Book Surge will print soft-back editions of the books and sell them for between USD10 and USD45.
University of Michigan spokesman Rick Fitzgerald explains that the move is an outgrowth of the university's project to digitize its collection, in partnership with Google. The project, which also involves Harvard and Stanford universities, encountered problems in 2004 when authors and publishers filed a federal court lawsuit claiming the pact violated copyright laws. The publishing industry settled the suit in 2008 but the controversy continues as the US Department of Justice is now investigating the deal.
Some of the books are one-of-a-kind and have long been available only through academic libraries. University librarian Paul Courant says: "this agreement means that titles that have been generally unavailable for a century or more will be able to go back into print, one copy at a time."
StrategyEye's related categories: Search - Web, Industry Bodies - TMT Bodies, Print Publishers - Books & Journals, Online Bookstores, Universities
StrategyEye's related companies: Amazon.com
