Sony, Google Strike Public Domain Deal

Google and Sony announced in March a deal that would make some public domain titles scanned by Google available on the Sony Reader. Financial details were not disclosed; however, major media outlets framed the deal as something of a wedge by Sony against Amazon.com's increasing power in the ebook market since the introduction of the Kindle. Amazon is said currently to have 250,000 books in its Kindle library, but with the new agreement with Google, Sony could offer as many as 500,000 titles via its reader.

Meanwhile, the TeleRead blog pointed out some key points about the deal. While Sony Reader owners can download any of the 500,000 public domain ebooks to their digital libraries at no charge, so can anyone with a computer—and, so, too, it seems, can Kindle owners, if they have conversion software for the ePub standard.

“The related ePub files are not encrypted, so any ePub-capable software should work,” wrote TeleRead's Paul Biba, “as will the Calibre library management and file conversion program, meaning that ebook-smart people could change the ePub books into a variety of formats for non-Sony handhelds, even Kindles via Calibre.”

In a follow-up, TeleRead's David Rothman noted that Google's restrictions on public domain titles apply to the Sony downloads—such as prohibiting commercial use. Public domain books available for download via other library-based scanning efforts, including the Open Content Alliance, carry no restrictions.

“While the Google-Sony deal is laudable, I agree with warnings not to confuse it with pure altruism,” Rothman writes. “Nothing wrong with this! Just clever marketing. And as a writer myself, I like the idea of modern authors and publishers making money. But couldn't that mission still be accomplished without Google's onerous terms on the use of the material?”