From Print to Online to Print - The Changing Value Chain

An article from Read Write Web¹ rose my interest today. It was Google's announcement that all content from Google Books is now searchable from the Search Options panel the company introduced earlier this year. That was not a surprise at all. But what's the big picture?

Just one day before, September 17th On Demand Books announced Google has signed an agreement with On Demand Books (PDF), which grants them access to Google's vast library of public domain books. Now if you're interested in a book which is public domain you can easily print it on demand - at least at any of the places which have already an Espresso Book Machine^®. Now a book of 3-400 pages can be printed with a speed of 145 pages per minute and at a cost of about 1 cent per page within 3 minutes. In our sample for $4. The machine can be purchased for as little as $100,000. A demonstration of the machine can be watched online at YouTube: The Espresso Book Machine.

"Unfortunately" the current legal issue with all non-public domain books is that they're protected by copyright which protects them from being illegally copied - at least that is the mission of the law. What would happen if this barrier falls?

Secondly: let's think of an author who does not longer want to wait for her book to be published. She signs a contract with Google for a revenue share when her digital book available in the Google Book "store" will be printed on an Espresso Book Machine^®. Google becomes Amazon but with the power of a publisher.

⁽¹⁾ Source: RWW on searching Google Books

Comments

[twitter.com/100janovic]

OR if a reader doesn't want to make the hard copy at all? Apple has made a fortune selling music that most of the times is never burnt on CD or transfered on any other traditional media. It's enjoyed only in digital domain, only for a certain period of time...
Amazon made an effort to market the reader device, just to move into digital domain, paper free.
If the reader of the Google's digital book library does need the special device, Google might make an electronic device in a partnership or by themselves, and sell subscriptions to mags, newspapers and books.
To hell with Espresso printing machine.