Amazon Ordered to End Free Delivery on Books in France
558455
Amazon has 10 days to start charging for the delivery of books, which should allow the company to maintain the offer through the end-of-year gift-giving season.
211323
French publisher Infogrames has announced its results for the first half of FY 2005, revealing in the process that the firm has sold off the lucrative Civilisation franchise to an as-yet unknown purchaser.
663565
Amazon.com made its anticipated entry into renting DVDs on the Internet on Thursday, launching a service in the United Kingdom that it says will charge as much as 30 percent less than its competitors.
696662
The entertainment company plans to release movies through Sony's HD DVD format. Also: France sells off stakes in Air France & hellip;.  GM in Europe announces future cuts & hellip;. and more.
767823
Amazon.com has officially taken the wraps off its Internet search engine, joining the contest to unseat No. 1 provider Google. A9.
575960
I noted yesterday that there seems to be some media fanfare surrounding Amazon's launch of a digital book tablet. It occurred to me that the markets surrounding media such as books, music and movies bear more than a passing resemblance to financial markets, and as such, perhaps they were amenable to a similar method of analysis. Being the owner of a sizable collection of paper books, this led me to consider the drawbacks one faces when Digital Rights Management restrictions are put in place.
454247
Royal Mail loses "critical" Â£8m contract to collect second class mail from online retailer Amazon.
332836
IT COULD be the final nail in the coffin of the High Street video shop. Internet giant Amazon today launched a DVD rental service that allows customers to borrow films by post.
492718
France has millions of DSL customers, who pray nothing goes wrong. High-tech service in France is like service in a Parisian cafe -- intermittent and snooty.
373333
(InfoWorld) - In a surprise move, the European Commission said Wednesday it is shelving plans to overhaul Europeâs rules on copyright fees, after intense lobbying from France and from groups representing artists and authors. The Commission, the executive body of the European Union, was planning to replace the patchwork of national rules with a Europe-wide code designed to better suit the digital age. Presently most countries impose copyright levies on a wide range of products, from photocopiers to mobile phones, and including recordable formats such as CD-Rs, blank cassettes and even paper. The size of levies varies widely from country to country. Only the U.K., Ireland, and Luxembourg do not impose any such levies. Copyright levies are supposed to compensate artists and authors who donât receive any payment when their copyrighted music, documents, or pictures are duplicated by consumers. The Commission wanted to harmonize the rules and scrap levies on most hardware. Its aim was to reduce the fees, which in some cases increase the price of goods dramatically. For example, in Spain consumers have to pay almost â¬300 ($398) in levies when they buy an 80GB MP3 player; in Austria the equivalent charge is just â¬8, according to the Copyright Levies Reform Alliance (CLRA), a coalition of businesses dedicated to harmonizing and lowering copyright fees in Europe. The Commission said it was abandoning the rule change for now. It had planned to publish a proposal before the end of this year. âMore reflection is needed on this complex issue,â spokeswoman Pia AhrenKilde Hansen told journalists. She wouldnât give a new timetable for the legal proposal. She acknowledged that the French prime minister Dominique de Villepin had written to the Commission earlier this month, urging it to drop the plan but she insisted that the Commission will decide for itself when the proposal will be launched. The Commission has been planning to harmonize copyright levies across the E.U. since 2000. Since then the case for scrapping most levies has grown stronger. Digital rights management software, which allows copyright owners to track the copying of their works, has become commonplace. The Commissionâs climb down sparked an angry reaction from the companies and industry groups pushing for a change to the system. âEuropean industry is deeply disturbed by the European Commissionâs apparent about-face on the planned reform of copyright levies,â said Mark McGann, spokesman for the CLRA in a statement issued Wednesday. âWith this decision, it is clear to industry that the Commission has abandoned any serious efforts to establish transparency, efficiency and fairness in the way these levies are set, collected and distributed,â he added, warning that without the revamp of copyright levies, several large European companies now intend to file official complaints with the Commission that will likely result in a wave of infringement procedures against certain member states. âThe reform of copyright levies would then move from the European executive to the European Court of Justice,â CLRA said in its statement.
249280
Robbing Peter to rob Peter The New Zealand performance artist who brought down Amazon.comâs one-click patent said that he gained much of his information from a subsidiary of Amazon itself. He also said that he acted because so little happens in New Zealand that he was bored.â¦
569179
LONDON - Amazon.co.uk is taking on the crowded UK DVD online rental market with a new offering that will undercut current prices by as much as 30%.
153718
Internet retailer Amazon dismisses a report that it is failing to get orders delivered to its customers in time for Christmas.
509745
US publisher sues a distributor and online store for shipping copies of the final book too early.
77625
The label has announced a deal that allows Amazon to sell DRM-free tracks through its online music store.
434109
Per ottenere il via libera dell'Ue su Gaz de France
402782
The publisher of the latest Harry Potter book cancels an order to supply 500,000 copies to Asda supermarkets.