Gadgetopia

Publishers Grudgingly Cooperate With Amazon Database Effort: Amazon wants all publishers to provide digital copies of all their nonfiction titles so customers can search for a term anywhere in the text when shopping. Publishers have issues.

“Publishers cite three major concerns about the project, dubbed Look Inside the Book II. Many are worried about security issues, noting that despite Amazon assurances, by digitizing a book that will be hosted in another company’s file, the chances of piracy increases. Another concern is that rather than increasing the sales of books, as Amazon suggests, the project will cut into sales….The third concern, and one shared by the Authors Guild, is that publishers don’t have the contractual right to let an author’s work appear on the site without the author’s consent.”

Via Resource Shelf.