The Malaysian Insider :: Books
The Malaysian Insider :: Books |
| Amazon says Kindle users are entitled to e-books refunds Posted: 13 Oct 2012 08:17 PM PDT  Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos holds up the new Kindle Fire HD 7" and Kindle Fire HD 8.9" (left) during Amazon's Kindle Fire event in Santa Monica, California in file photo. — Reuters pic Amazon told Kindle owners in emails yesterday that they could receive a refund of between 30 cents and US$1.32 (RM4.03) for e-books they bought between April 2010 and May 2012. The books must have been published by three publishers who have agreed to settle a lawsuit that accused them of inflating e-book prices. The settlements are subject to court approval, and a hearing is scheduled for February. If approved, the settlements would also limit the publishers' ability to set future e-book prices, which should lead to lower costs for Kindle users, according to Amazon. "We think these settlements are a big win for customers and look forward to lowering prices on more Kindle books in the future," Amazon told customers in the emails. Amazon did not immediately respond to questions yesterday about how many customers could be affected. The settlements came about after the Justice Department in April accused Apple Inc and five publishers of illegally colluding on prices as part of an effort to fight Amazon's dominance of e-books. Three of the publishers - News Corp's HarperCollins Publishers Inc, CBS Corp's Simon & Schuster Inc and Lagardere SCA's Hachette Book Group - decided to settle. Amazon was not a party to this lawsuit. The three publishers have denied they did anything wrong, but agreed to settle the lawsuit to avoid the cost and risk of a trial, according to the settlement website, ebooksagsettlements.com. If the court approves the settlements, the publishers will pay for e-book refunds that will be applied automatically to the Amazon.com accounts of eligible customers. Customers can use the refunds to purchase Kindle books or print books or request a check for the amount of the refund. Electronic books more than doubled in popularity in 2011, with e-book sales making up 15 per cent of the market last year, up from 6 per cent in 2010, according the Association of American Publishers and the Book Industry Study Group. While e-books increased in sales power, bringing in more than US$2 billion in 2011, the majority of publishers' revenue still came from printed books, at US$11.1 billion in 2011. — Reuters |
| Posted: 13 Oct 2012 07:35 PM PDT  'Nezo Art no Hon' is reportedly inspiring Japanese women to create trendy baby art. — Afp pic Japanese mothers are dressing their sleeping babies in colorful costumes and using everyday items such as clothes, hangers and vegetables as props to create Nezo art, which means "sleeping position art" in Japanese. The trend started with cartoonist Mami Koide, who published a limited edition book in August titled Nezo Art no Hon, translated into The Book of Sleeping Posture Art, featuring 90 photographs of her sleeping daughter in various fantastical scenarios. The book, which became an instant hit on Amazon Japan, also has tips for mothers who wish to make their own Nezo art. The photographs were initially taken by Koide for the baby's father, who worked late nights as a bartender. "At the beginning, I wasn't sure whether the illustration crafted with clothes would really look like a picture, but after I sent it to my husband, I was very pleased to hear that he really got it and that it was interesting. It made him chuckle," Koide told Japanese television network NTDTV earlier this year. The art of photographing sleeping babies was prevously spotted in the popular blog of Finnish former copywriter Adele Enersen — in Mila's Daydreams, she creatively captured images of her sleeping daughter in various positions. The photos were eventually put together into a book titled When My Baby Dreams, published in January this year. — Afp-Relaxnews
|
| You are subscribed to email updates from The Malaysian Insider :: Books To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
0 ulasan:
Catat Ulasan