Friday, September 11, 2009
Google to Create World’s Largest Searchable Archive of Arguments Against Google Books
Add another name to the list of opponents of the Google Book Search Settlement: Marybeth Peters, U.S. Register of Copyrights. In testimony before the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee Thursday, Peters tarred the deal as “fundamentally at odds with the law” and villainized Google, saying the company is making a “mockery” of the copyright protections in the U.S. Constitution.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’s hair-shirt apology for Kindlegate was a nice gesture, but it didn’t go over particularly well with Justin Gawronski, a Michigan high school senior who lost his homework when the retailer remotely deleted a copy of George Orwell’s “Nineteen Eighty-Four” from his Kindle earlier this month. He’s filed a class action suit against Amazon seeking to prevent it from deleting books from Kindles in the future.
Well, this is unexpected. Amazon has agreed to purchase online shoe retailer Zappos.com in a deal valued at about $850 million. Under its terms, the retailer will acquire all outstanding Zappos shares in exchange for roughly 10 million shares of Amazon common stock, valued at about $807 million, and some $40 million in cash and restricted stock. If the shoe fits, right?
The long-standing legal dispute between Toys R Us and Amazon has been resolved in the toy retailer’s favor, but at a much discounted price. In a regulatory filing submitted to the SEC Friday, Amazon said it has agreed to pay Toys R Us $51 million to settle claims that it violated a former exclusivity agreement with the company.
If Macworld isn’t on its last legs after Apple’s withdrawal from the event, the Consumer Electronics Association is clearly hoping the annual Apple-only convention soon will be. The group, which hosts the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas every January, said Thursday that it is expanding the amount of show floor space dedicated to Apple. 
Those store-within-a-store Apple boutiques that have been appearing in Best Buys around the country may soon start popping up in Wal-Marts as well. That’s the word from Ben Reitzes, an analyst with Barclays Capital, who believes the retailer hopes to add the Mac to the PC lines it peddles.
Amazon has weathered the recession better than most, but not without a concession… or three. The retailer said Thursday that it is shuttering a trio of distribution centers in three states and will sack or transfer the 210 employees who work at them. It’s the first time Amazon has closed a warehouse since 2006.
There’s a new beachhead in Amazon’s campaign to commandeer sales from competing retailers: Apple’s iPhone. This morning the retailer uncrated Amazon Mobile, an iPhone/iPod Touch application that allows users to browse its wares and those of associated retailers like Target and Macy’s. The app supports Amazon’s standard features as well as an intriguing, but totally cumbersome, new one.
