March 20, 2009 by James Oliver
In the early days of the eBook reader wars Kindle appears to have the advantage. Its catchier name and cannier marketing have helped it win the vital race to household name status. As a result, few people are even aware that there is an alternative.
That, however, is probably set to change with the news that Sony, makers of the ‘Digital Book,’ have announced a partnership with Google – a partnership that gives Sony’s device a significant added extra.
Thanks to the deal brokered last night, digital book users will now be able to access around half a million classic books completely free, through Sony’s eBook Store.
How is this possible? Well, it’s all to do with the Google Book Search project. Book Search is a scheme that has been going on for years, it involves armies of hapless Google employees scanning thousands upon thousands of books into computers and, in part at least, converting to them digital format.
Sony are able to give the results of Book Search away for free because Google have only given them books on which the copyrights have expired. This means that the vast majority of the new free books available on the Sony reader were written before 1923.
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