PW Digital Marketplace
Check out the PW Digital Marketplace, a sponsored listing of digital vendors and their services related to the book business.
Featured Vendor: MagicBox
MagicBox, an award-winning digital publishing platform, serves four million users globally. A SaaS-based, cloud-hosted mobile distribution platform, MagicBox enables publishers and content providers to create, enrich, and deliver their digital content through custom branded web and mobile apps. Learn more about MagicBox Platform.and more.
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CopyrightJudge Rules Class Action Suit Against Anthropic Can Proceed
The AI company is believed to have copied up to seven million books from the pirate sites LibGen and PiLiMi. Experts said if the authors win the class action, Anthropic could be facing a billion-dollar settlement.
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Copyright
Senate Hearing Debates AI Training on Copyrighted Works
After hearing testimony from five witnesses, including author David Baldacci, Senator Josh Hawley concluded that if the way tech companies collect content to train their AI models isn’t copyright infringement, then “we need to change the law.”
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Content / e-books
Wiley Partners with Anthropic on AI Integration for Scholarly Research
Wiley will collaborate with Anthropic on a pilot project to integrate academic and scholarly research into its AI with the aim of establishing best practices around accurate and consistent citations.
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Devices
Can E-Readers Still Innovate?: PW Talks with Sol Reader CEO Ben Chelf
Chelf’s startup has designed a $249 wearable e-reader resembling a pair of sunglasses, with e-ink screens in place of lenses, challenging the assumption that digital reading devices can never be more than a one-trick tablet.
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Content / e-books
Four Years After Buying It for $440 Million, Kakao to Shutter Radish Fiction
Korea’s Kakao Entertainment acquired mobile-first serialized fiction platform Radish Fiction for $440 million in 2021, but after writing down much of that investment and facing a slowing market, the company plans to close the platform at the end of 2025.
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Retailing
Indie Retailers Offer Anti–Amazon Prime Day Promotions
Prompted by Amazon’s annual Prime Day sale, Bookshop.org, Libro.fm, and the American Booksellers Association are offering incentives and launching campaigns to encourage customers to shop with independent retailers July 8–11.
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Copyright
Meta Wins AI Copyright Case, But Judge Writes Roadmap for Authors’ Revenge
U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria granted summary judgment to Meta in a copyright case brought by 13 authors, saying they offered virtually no proof of how they were harmed by Meta's use of their work, while outlining several ways they might succeed in the future.
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Copyright
Federal Judge Rules AI Training Is Fair Use in Anthropic Copyright Case
A federal judge in California has issued a complicated ruling in one of the first major copyright cases involving AI training, finding that while using books to train AI models constitutes fair use, downloading pirated books was a violation of copyright law.
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Retailing
NetGalley Launches Consumer Marketing Platform, Booktrovert
The Firebrand subsidiary, which offers prepublication digital book galleys to industry pros, has launched Booktrovert.com, a consumer marketing platform offering e-book giveaways, reader activities, promotional campaigns, and book sales.
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Content / e-books
Everand Acquires Online Book Club Platform Fable
Everand, the online e-book and audiobook subscription service and subsidiary of Scribd, has acquired the social reading and book club app Fable, which has three million users and hosts more than 100,000 book clubs.
