Publishing Perspectives has an interesting article about comic book piracy in France, focusing on a report by the Paris government’s “Le MOTif” book and writing “observatory”. The third in a series of reports on piracy that began in 2009, Le MOTif zoomed in on comics, as this is the category of books that is pirated the most in France. Comic books make up 10-14% of France’s global book market, but the availability of comics in e-book format does not meet the readers’ needs — resulting in organized teams of pirates (up to 100) that have...

FutureBook’s Philip Jones has a piece looking at the problems of value-added tax (VAT) on e-books in Europe. The fundamental problem is that, in the UK, e-books are charged the highest possible VAT rate, 20%, while print books have been exempt from VAT for decades. Other parts of Europe are in similar situations. This has the effect of inflating the price of e-books and slowing down their adoption compared to paper. When Parliament member Tom Blenkinsop asked the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer about reducing or eliminating VAT for e-books, the Chancellor said, essentially, that under EU agreements...

Today Amazon opened a French Kindle store, joining its already existing USA, UK, and German stores. The French store will serve customers in France, Belgium, Monaco, Luxembourg, and Switzerland. Along with the new store, Amazon is selling a French edition of its lowest-end non-touch Kindle (the one that sells for $109 ad-free in the US) for 99 Euros (US$133). The devices will ship on October 14th. I notice that the French Kindle store has a number of works by French author Maurice Leblanc available quite cheaply. It’s almost enough to make me want to learn French. ...

Sometimes it seems Apple’s 30% royalty rate has become just one of those facts of life. Nobody has had much luck trying to talk Apple out of it; even companies as large as Amazon have ended up having to pull their in-app store links. But a consortium of French publications seem to expect they’ll have better luck. Reuters reports that eight such publications, ostensibly “fierce competitors” under normal circumstances, have put aside their differences and are trying to negotiate with Apple. The papers want a reduction in the 30% commission rate, and also access to customer data,...

The Bookseller reports that three French publishers who had previously sued Google over unauthorized digitization of their books as part of its Google Books plan have failed to file the case by a September 6th deadline. The article speculates that they may be on the verge of reaching an agreement with Google similar to the one Hachette Livre entered into last year. A French publishers’ association and authors’ association also filed suit against Google at the same time as Hachette and fellow publisher La Martinère (which also settled) did, and have not said whether they also plan to drop...

The Bookseller reports that Google has reached an agreement with publisher Hachette Livre to scan out-of-print French e-books. Between 40,000 and 50,000 books will be scanned, and Hachette Livre will decide which ones are made available as e-books. (I wonder if it will include any Arsène Lupin novels?) Google hopes to reach similar agreements with other French publishers. The deal took two months longer than it was supposed to, but both parties seem satisfied with its terms. A little strange, given how much acrimony there was in Europe over Google’s scanning projects not long ago....

From a LeMonde Article (In French, Mechanical Translation via Google): The National Library of France announced Wednesday, July 6, launching an appeal to private partners for the digitization and enhancement of its collections. “Today is a historic step,” said President BNF, Bruno Racine, during a joint press conference in Paris with the Minister of Culture, Frédéric Mitterrand, and the Commissioner General for investment, René Ricol. The BNF has identified 12 areas that can be scanned in partnership with private actors. These include ancient books from 1470 to 1700, a set of 300 000 French and 500 000 printed in the public domain,...

The French e-book price-fixing law, which we mentioned in October and again earlier this month, has passed the French National Assembly, the Bookseller reports. The bill says that retailers both inside and outside of France must respect its price requirements, which conflicts with European Union law and will likely lead to a confrontation with the European Commission. It seems that price-fixing, whether by governments or publishers, is becoming very popular for e-books. Of course, many European countries like France already fix the price of printed books, so adding a similar clause for electronic ones is only to be expected....

The Guardian has an article looking at European publisher reactions in the aftermath of EU raids to determine whether agency pricing constitutes an anti-trust violation. The article has some interesting things to say about the model, and its paper-book-pricing forerunner. The agency model is, in effect, a return to the net book agreement in electronic form. Publishers let that go in 1997 – and bitter experience has taught them to regret it. Losing the net book agreement did not lead to greater variety, customer choice, a better deal for producers or for shops (as those on...

After announcing its cooperative arrangement with Hachette Livre for Google Books operations in France, Google has now said that it is in “notional” talks with UK publishers to come to a similar arrangement, The Bookseller reports. The company also announced Hachette had signed up with its forthcoming e-book program, Google Editions, and hoped to launch it “shortly.” Industry observers are pleased with the deal, which seems to have produced a similar result to the Google Books settlement without expensive, time-consuming litigation. However, the French Publishers Association is still skeptical, warning that Google "has never respected its commitments as regards...

Google has come to a settlement with French publisher Hachette Livre in regard to the scanning and use of scanned French books for its Google Books project. The deal apparently gives Hachette considerable control over what titles are scanned and used. Hachette will also get to use Google’s scans of its books for print-on-demand and e-book sales. The Bookseller’s FutureBooks reports on the settlement and posts the press release. The Bookseller itself has more backstory, noting that Hachette had filed an objection to the Google Books settlement with the US court in September. Google says that it does not...

ActuaLitté is reporting that new French legislation will allow publishers to fix the price of ebooks. This will bring ebooks into line with the Lang law that prevents the discounting of books more than 5% below the sales price. The really nutty thing, however, is the provision of the law that prevents libraries from offering ebooks at the same moment that the paper book is released. Clearly this is all aimed at Google and Amazon. Here is a Google translation of part of the article about an interview with Herve Gaymard: In the interview published in The Tribune yesterday,...