Department of Justice opening statement U.S. vs. Apple et al; China approves Penguin-Random House merger; CHORUS tries to address (OSTP) public access memorandum; LRP Publications acquires Thompson’s Education Library; Elsevier provides access to Reaxys for five Czech Universities; Kudos partners with Taylor and Francis & the Royal Society of Chemistry; Net Neutrality in E;urope; and Blekko search engine announces redesign
According to DigitalBookWorld “in its opening statement today in U.S. vs. Apple et al, the highly anticipated ebook price-fixing antitrust trial, the Department of Justice laid out in detail how it believes Apple orchestrated a plan among the largest U.S. publishers to raise the price of ebooks.
A slick Powerpoint presentation used during the proceedings contain dozens of company emails between Apple vice president for Internet services, Eddy Cue, and senior executives from Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin, Random House and Simon & Schuster. The government’s case hinges around proving that Apple acted as a hub for the publishers to communicate and conspire…”
(View the slides at Justice Department releases slides showing alleged Apple ebook conspiracy)
The Denver Post report that “two of the world’s largest publishers, Random House Inc. and Penguin Group, expect to complete a planned merger next month.
Parent companies Bertelsmann and Pearson announced Monday that the merger had been cleared by anti-trust authorities in China, among the last countries to give approval. The new publishing house, Penguin Random House, will be 53 percent controlled by Bertelsmann and 47 percent by Pearson.
In this post in Scholarly Kitchen Kent Anderson reports that “today, a group of publishers and publishing associations announced an initiative to address the Office of Science and Technology Policy’s (OSTP) public access memorandum.
He then offers his opinion that “the initiative, called CHORUS, for the ClearingHouse for the Open Research of the United Status, provides what the memorandum requires in a way that saves the US government and its agencies time and money; gives the public access to publicly funded scientific findings via embargoed access to publishers’ final approved, edited, and formatted papers…”
According to this press release in PRWeb, “LRP Publications, … today announced that it has acquired the acclaimed Education Library from Thompson Media Group. By incorporating the Education Library into LRP Publications’ … content, LRP will be positioned to accelerate their ability to supply a wider variety of newsletters, books, pamphlets, eLearning courses and training tools across all print and digital platforms…”
According to this press release from Elsevier “it has provided access to Reaxys, an online workflow solution for research chemists, for five Czech universities: the University of Pardubice, the Masaryk University, the Palacky University in Olomouc, the Tomas Bata University in Zlín and the University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences Brno. The 5-year access agreement is supported by the European Structural Funds (ESF) through their Operational Framework Program for Research, Development and Innovation…”
According to Information Today “Kudos, a startup that provides a cross-publisher service to help researchers maximize the usage and impact of published articles, announced the launch of a pilot phase in which it is partnering with Taylor & Francis Group and the Royal Society of Chemistry…”
GIGAOM reports that “Europe’s digital chief, Neelie Kroes, said last week that she would push through the EU’s first net neutrality legislation as part of a drive to demonstrate the relevance of the union. There was no detail at the time, but now we have it – and net neutrality advocates will not be pleased…”
ResourceShelf quoting the Blekko blog reports that they have announced the “latest blekko.com site redesign. This major redesign has 3 main features:
- Blekko now exposes multiple search categories to help users navigate to high quality results more efficiently and with less queries
- Blekko supports a responsive design that adjusts to tablet and desktop screen sizes
- The site has been redesigned with a new aesthetic and navigational approach that we hope users find fun and engaging
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