Tag Archives: EU

Ebook news digest: book towns, fake news, EU stops geoblocking, Kindle Lite

2018-04-02

News on ebooks, writing and digital media

Book Towns Are Made for Book Lovers
Atlas Obscura

Journalist Alex Johnson has written a book titled Book Towns that shows communities across the world that have decided to attract visitors and residents with books. This article has some lovely photos of bookshops.

Why fake news on social media travels faster than the truth
The Guardian

MIT researchers have studied social media platforms as far as 10 years ago, and concluded that fake news really spread faster than real news. They also have some suggestions why it happens. Here is a key reason why books are important for understanding the world: researching, analyzing the data, structuring, and writing a book takes time, and during the process fake and real things reveal themselves.

Travel with your digital subscriptions
EU

In its long term mission to create a single digital market to the European Union countries, April 1 2018 is the day when digital media subscription services must allow access to their media streams from any EU country. No more geoblocking within EU.

1 Billion E-Books Checked Out Via Library Distributor
Forbes

Overdrive has been in business for five years, but has already reached a significant milestone. Since its inception, the company has distributed one billion ebooks to libraries across the world.

Travel Guide to Portugal’s South Coast Algarve
Amazon

It seems that everyone wants to visit Portugal now after the southern European country has won a travel award after travel award for the best beaches, resorts and attractions.

Infographic: A Concise History of Publishing
Ribbonfish

This concise history of publishing starts only from the 20th century, forgetting everything that happened before that, but if you want to be brief, be brief.

Apple’s iPad event took me back to school. What a trip!
Cnet

So Apple introduced a tablet targeted at schools. In principle, it is the normal 9.7-inch iPad but you can buy a touch sensitive stylus (Apple Pencil) that has plenty of additional features. The price of the tablet is competitive, but the Pencil has a wide Apple margin included in the price. For ebook reading, iPad’s screen is one of the best if not the best tablet screen available.

Amazon launches Kindle Lite app for basic smartphones and slower internet connections
Android Authority

A lightweight Kindle ebook reading application for mobile phones that have limited memory space and slow network connection. The Kindle Lite is initially available in India alone, but let’s see if it becomes available in other countries.

Younger viewers now watch Netflix more than the BBC, says corporation
The Guardian

For many years, broadcast television companies were confident of the future. Advertising money was converting from print media to digital and broadcast media. The inevitable, however, is happening: digital media in the form of streaming services is challenging television.

European Union stops geoblocking between EU countries

2017-11-25

European Union (the Parliament, the Council and the Commission) has agreed to make geoblocking illegal in specific situations where consumers want to buy a product or service from another EU country. The EU Commissioners who are championing the new legislation see the new policy as an important step towards the Digital Single Market for Europe, a key EU strategy.

Geoblocking is a technique commonly used by online services that enables a service provider, such as an online shop to block access to their web pages because the customer’s computer seems to be located in another country. The conclusion is drawn from the network address of the customer’s computer (IP address). Another way to block access to services and products is to only accept payments from customers who have a local payment card.

Especially for citizens of small countries, the product and service prices, and also choices for products and services in large European countries are often more attractive than in their home countries. Buying and downloading an digital product from Germany is in many cases a good deal for a consumer in Denmark, for example.

Naturally, language issues may still stop consumers from shopping around in other countries, but English is a common second language at many online shopping services.

Removal of geoblocking doesn’t mean avoiding value added taxes. EU has already earlier ruled that the taxes must be paid in the country of the customer.

The end-of-geoblocking rules apply to three specific situations only (according to the EU announcement):

1. The sale of goods without physical delivery. Example: A Belgian customer wishes to buy a refrigerator and finds the best deal on a German online store. The customer can order the product and collect it from the shop or organise delivery to his home at his own cost.
2. The sale of online services. Example: A Bulgarian consumer wishes to buy hosting services for her website from a Spanish company. She can buy and access the service without having to pay additional fees.
3. The sale of services provided in a specific physical location. Example: An Italian family can buy a trip directly to an amusement park in France without being redirected to an Italian website.

The new regulation does not impose an obligation to sell and does not harmonise prices. It does, however, address discrimination in access to goods and services in cases where it cannot be objectively justified (e.g. by VAT obligations or different legal requirements).

The geoblocking legislation will come into force by late 2018.

At the high level, the new EU legislation is easy to understand, simple and fair. Details concerning, for instance, purchasing digital content products from currently geoblocked stores will be interesting to discover. Many small EU countries don’t have a local Amazon, or another large online store. If someone in Estonia wants to buy a digital product from Amazon.de, the buyer is redirected to Amazon.com. In 2018, the buyer should be able buy directly from Amazon.de?

Travelers rejoice, EU has removed roaming charges! But what about visitors from non-European countries?

2017-06-15

European Union has reached a crucial milestone in its effort to create a truly single market for its member countries. Telecommunication service providers whose networks we use when we make phone calls and connect to the Internet are not allowed to charge extra if you take your mobile phone to another EU country and let it connect to a local network. You can make phone calls and use Internet services for the same price as in your home EU country.

All EU citizens who travel are certainly happy about the decision that was inaugurated on June 15, 2017. If you have a prepaid SIM card, doublecheck your operator’s policy. For instance Vodafone still charges extra if you use your prepaid SIM card in another EU country, but it was the only one I could find. Others are following the new EU policy.

What if you arrive in Europe but don’t have a SIM card from a EU country? Usually, you would purchase a prepaid SIM card in the country where you landed, right? Well, that’s what you still can do. Here is the best part: choose wisely, and you can roam in EU countries with that SIM card and only pay the charges of the card’s home country. If you buy your prepaid SIM card in Germany, and travel to France and Italy, you consume your voice and data plan according to the German operator’s home plan.

The initial period for free roaming is two weeks. If you roam longer than two weeks (14 days), your operator has the right to contact you and perhaps apply extra charges.

So, the thing is to doublecheck that the prepaid SIM card operator doesn’t have extra charges for roaming, and you want to have a SIM that can be topped up via the Internet or via phone. In some countries, you must walk into the operator’s shop to top up, but that’s not going work if you travel.

Thank you, EU! Here is the statement concerning free roaming from the EU office that includes an extensive FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) as well.

Thanks to EU, also Amazon has to compete on fair terms in the European ebook markets

2017-05-06

European Commission has made a decision on complaints about Amazon’s business practices in the EU markets. The decision published on 4th May 2017 confirms that the new terms Amazon had offered to the EU have been accepted. The new terms between Amazon and book publishers who operate in the EU market can not have the most favored nation clause anymore, which means that the publishers don’t have to guarantee Amazon the lowest ebook price.

European Commission agreed the following commitments offered by Amazon confirmed to EU’s competitive regulation:

[Amazon will] “Not to enforce (i) relevant clauses requiring publishers to offer Amazon similar non-price and price terms and conditions as those offered to Amazon’s competitors or (ii) any such clauses requiring publishers to inform Amazon about such terms and conditions. The commitments cover in particular provisions related to alternative/new business models, release date and catalogue of e-books, features of e-books, promotions, agency price, agency commission and wholesale price.
To allow publishers to terminate e-book contracts that contain a clause linking discount possibilities for e-books to the retail price of a given e-book on a competing platform (so-called Discount Pool Provision). Publishers are allowed to terminate the contracts upon 120 days’ advance written notice.
Not to include, in any new e-book agreement with publishers, any of the clauses mentioned above, including Discount Pool Provisions.”

The case is all about money and control. Amazon has used (and is still using in other markets) its dominant position in the market to enforce the best price and terms for ebooks it sells to consumers. EU has now ended the practice in Europe.

We can confirm that Amazon monitored the lowest price -clause. We have received a note from Amazon that told us to lower the price of an ebook at Amazon, because it was priced lower at another bookstore. There was not much choice, but to lower the product price for Amazon.

We shouldn’t forget that thanks to Amazon, the world has a dynamic ebook market today. Ten years ago, Amazon introduced the first Kindle ereader (a history of Kindle gives you an overview of all models – just look at the first one, oh dear). A pretty good selection of ebooks was available at 9.99 right from the start. It was a beginning for something new that is still developing strongly.

European Commission’s note on the Amazon decision. The investigation process started in June 2015.

EU confirms that libraries can lend ebooks provided authors are fairly compensated

2016-11-13

Ebooks have been, and are being, lended by public libraries in many EU countries, but on November 10th, 2016 the EU Court of Justice decided that libraries really have the right to do so. The court regarded that the principles for lending paper books and ebooks are the same. The most important point for authors and publishers of digital books is that the court specifically stated that the authors must be fairly remunerated for library loans.

The case was brought to the EU Court of Justice by Dutch authors’ organization Stichting Leenrecht which collects remuneration for authors. The EU court, however, saw the big picture and stated in its press release:

“That conclusion is, moreover, borne out by the objective pursued by the directive, namely that copyright must adapt to new economic developments.”

The EU Court attitude is warmly welcomed, and hopefully spreads to EU nations as well. Authors’ rights to benefit from their work is the number one priority for everyone in the business, but at the same time, the way the rights are used must be developed as the digital era progresses.

The EU Court states:

“[e-book lending] has essentially similar characteristics to the lending of printed works. That is the case as regards the lending of a digital copy of a book under the ‘one copy, one user’ model.” And specifically reminds “… provided that authors obtain, at least, fair remuneration.”

Currently, there are many practices in EU countries how libraries deal with digital books. For instance, public libraries in Finland don’t compensate ebook rights holders anything when citizens lend their works. That’s why publishers and authors are very reluctant to make ebooks available via libraries – one of likely reasons that has prevented ebook market to emerge in the country. In Sweden, publishers can set the price per loan that libraries have to pay for each loan. If a publisher sets the loan price too high, libraries won’t make the book available, but when the price is right, everyone is happy (including citizens who couldn’t get enough of football star Zlatan’s biography).

Surprisingly, The Federation of European Publishers opposes EU Court’s ebook lending decision. The organization represents national publishers’ associations, which tends to mean big publishers. The organization’s concern seems to be (according to the press release) piracy: ebook lenders would loan ebooks only to crack the DRM and keep the books forever, and not return them to the library.

Two things for the Federation of European Publishers to consider: the same piracy risk is present in all ebooks purchased from bookstores, and it would be a good idea for the organization to get familiar with the ebook lending system in Sweden.

Finally, European Union agrees that ebooks are books

2016-09-19

It is the content that matters. A book is a book regardless of the method you use to read it. A book printed on paper conveys the same ideas, information, excitement and messages as an electronic book enjoyed on a tablet, ereader or smartphone. Now, the European Union agrees with this concept. It means that the VAT for ebooks can be the same as it is for printed books.

So far, the VAT for ebooks in EU countries has been higher than for printed books. In some countries paper books don’t have VAT at all, but ebooks may have 15-24% VAT. It is a significant price difference.

France rebelled against the different VAT levels for books and ebooks already in 2013, but EU told France and later Luxembourg that they have to follow the rules. Ebooks were considered electronically supplied services rather than media products because ebooks are being delivered electronically, and there is no physical product. The great project to standardize VAT levels in EU had already started, and media products were part of it. France, Luxembourg and other countries were told to wait for the big VAT reform.

Now, Financial Times reports that Pierre Moscovici, the EU tax commissioner, agreed that ebooks are books. The commission will propose legislation to address the problem during October 2016. National governments will have to approve the initiative after that, but it is difficult to see why any government would want to stop it.

The next interesting story will be the level of VAT for ebooks. Will it be as low as it is for printed books, or will the VAT for paper books be raised to the same higher level than it is for ebooks?

Ebooks are slowly gaining market share in Europe as print books decline

2016-02-14

Ebooks made a quick breakthrough in countries where English is the dominant language after Amazon introduced the Kindle ereading system. From the beginning, Amazon’s ebook selection was huge, and prices were reasonable. In Europe (apart from the UK), the situation is different: ebooks haven’t gained the same status as printed books. Slowly, but surely the situation is changing in Europe as well, because ebook sales is continuously growing and print books are declining.

EU organization European Parliamentary Research Service has drafted a report that looks at the book market in Europe and possible reasons, such as country-specific taxation policies, for the slow development of ebook markets.

Data source: European Commission, Analysis of the media and content industries: The publishing industry. EPRS report “E-Books: Evolving markets and new challenges”.

The statistic sums up only five EU book markets, but (again, apart from the Great Britain) the trend is clear: ebooks are slowly finding readers, whereas printed books are losing readers. In 2014, the market share of ebooks was about 10%.

What is missing in Europe is the quick quantum leap that took ebooks to a new level in the US around 2010 and 2012. Then, ebooks gained 20-30% share of the book market. Recently, ebooks have taken a step back when the big publishers started controlling ebook pricing.

Why the quantum leap hasn’t happened in Europe? There are many small countries and a variety of languages. Many regional publishers have not made their back catalogue available as ebooks at all. It means that the ebook selection in a small language area may only be a couple of thousand titles. Ebook prices can be almost at the same level with print book prices. Poor selection, poor pricing strategy, and little marketing for ebooks.

The attitudes are changing in Europe. EU is examining ways to tax ebook and print books according to the same principles. Ebook selection is growing and big European publishers are reporting big growth numbers for digital products. One of the largest publishers, Bonnier, recently told that its ebook sales increased 69% in 2015 compared to the year before. The total share of ebooks from the sales in 2015 was 10%.

Just a reminder that books are a huge global business compared to other media businesses. With an estimated value of US$151 billion, books have outdistanced music (US$50 billion), video games (US$63 billion), magazines (US$107 billion) and even film and entertainment (US$133 billion).

Eurobarometer ranking 2015: Oslo and Zürich the best European cities to live in, Istanbul the worst

2016-02-06

Is it really possible to measure which city is the best to live in? Perhaps not, but that’s why European Union (European Commission’s Eurobarometer program) asked TNS Opinion to survey residents themselves for their direct opinions how things are in their home cities. More than 40 000 people were interviewed in 83 cities in Europe. The result: ranking of the best and the worst cities to live in Europe in 2015.

The overall satisfaction was the highest in Oslo (Norway) and Zürich (Switzerland). Belfast (Britain), Vilnius (Lithuania), Aalborg (Denmark), Rostock (Germany), Hamburg (Germany), Cardiff (UK), Stockholm (Sweden), and Braga (Portugal) made it to the top 10 as well.

The lowest overall satisfaction in own home town was in Istanbul (Turkey). Other cities in the bottom 10 are: Ankara (Turkey), greater Paris (France), Rome (Italy), Marseille (France), Miskolc (Hungary), Napoli (Italy), greater Athens (Greece), Palermo (Italy), and Athens (Greece.)

Ranking of 83 cities by overall satisfaction.

The Eurobarometer survey the “Perception of Quality of Life in European Cities” has been conducted every three years since 2004. In 2015, more than 40,000 people were interviewed in 79 cities and in 4 metropolitan areas (greater cities). In each city, around 500 citizens were interviewed. Residents rated the quality of services, such as education, cultural and sport facilities as well as public transport and administrative services.
You can view the whole 172-page Eurobarometer report here.

We have sampled the key information from the extensive report for travelers who are planning to visit European cities.

Cleanliness tells a lot about a city and its administration. If the streets are clean, it tends to show that residents care about their community and the administration works for the taxpayers. Luxemburg and Oviedo (Spain) take the top spot as the cleanest city.

Italian cities ranked the dirtiest.

Some travelers want to relax in a safe environment, whereas others look for an adventure. The safest cities as judged by residents themselves are Zürich (Switzerland), Aalborg (Denmark) and Munich (Germany).

If you travel to cities, like Athens (Greece), Istanbul (Turkey) and Sofia (Bulgaria), be aware that even the residents don’t feel all that safe in there.

Tourists who are looking for cultural experiences might want to consider visiting cities like Vienna (Austria), Zurich (Switzerland) and Helsinki (Finland).

Travelers tend to spend a lot of time on city streets, parks and public buildings. The quality of public spaces is considered the highest in Rotterdam (Netherlands), Malmö (Sweden) and Oviedo (Spain).

Top 20 tourist regions in Europe: Spain, France, Italy have the most popular destinations

2016-01-20

Europe is the world’s number one tourist destination, but anyone who has traveled in the culturally rich continent knows how different the countries are. Which countries and which regions exactly are the most visited destinations in Europe? The European Union has vast databases of information on tourism that reveals interesting details where travelers like to spend most of their time.

This particular statistics from EU is calculated from the nights tourists have stayed in hotels, B&B, rental cottages and campgrounds. The number of nights is different than the number of visitors, because the number one destination Canary Islands (Spain) is likely to get at least seven nights per visitor because most travelers fly to the islands and stay there for one or more weeks. That’s why number two destination Ile de France (in practice, Paris) may get more visitors than Canary Islands but since they are likely to stay only a few nights in Paris, the number of nights doesn’t add up to the same level as in the islands.

Anyhow, the statistics show where tourists really like to spend time (and money), which means there has to be something special in the destination that gets millions of visitors travel there every year. EU has updated the statistics on July 3rd, 2015, but the actual numbers maybe older.

The total number is million nights spent by residents and non-residents in each destination. The blue bar shows the number of nights for hotel accommodation, green for holiday homes and the color of sand for campgrounds.

Top 20 tourist regions of Europe are:

1. Canary Islands, Spain.
2. Ile de France (Paris).
3. Catalonia. The province in Northeast Spain where Barcelona and the Costa Brava are located.
4. Balearic Islands (Mallorca, Ibiza, Menorca).
5. Adriatic Croatia (Jadranska Hrvatska), the coastal region of Croatia.
6. Veneto, Italy. The region around Venice.
7. Provence-Alpes-Cote-d’Azur, France. The region where Nice, Monaco, the French Riviera and the Southernmost Alps in France are located.
8. Andalusia, Spain. The province in southern Spain where, for instance, Sevilla, Malaga and Marbella are located.
9. Rhones-Alpes, France. The high Alps, and the city of Lyon in the valley of Rhone.
10. Inner London, UK.
11. Tuscany, Italy. Florence, Siena and other towns on the rolling hills of Tuscany.
12. Valencia region in Spain. For instance, Benidorm, Alicante and Torrevieja are here.
13. Emila Romagna, Italy. Rimini, San Marino, Bologna, Parma are some of the towns in the region.
14. Tirol, Austria. The province in the high Alps, Innsbruck is the largest town.
15. Languedoc-Roussillon, France. The province is bordered by the Pyrenees and the Mediterranean.
16. Lombardy, Italy. The region where the large lakes of Garda, Lugano and the city Milan meet the Dolomites mountain range.
17. Upper Bavaria, Germany. The region around Munich.
18. Aquitane, France. The province between the Atlantic Ocean and the Pyrenees from Biarritz to Bordeaux.
19. Lazio, Italy. The region around Rome.
20. Bolzano, Italy. The high Alps region in Italy.

If we look at the same statistical data and take into account only foreigners who have stayed in another country, the most popular travel destinations in Europe looks a bit different.

Destinations that rise to the Top 20 when only foreigners are taken into account are: Crete (Greece), South Aegean Sea (Notio Aigaio, Greece), Salzburg (Austria), North Netherlands. Other destinations are the same as in the Total Top 20.

If you want to know where residents like spend their vacation in their own countries, here is a statistics for that as well.

The Best Up-and-Coming European Fiction Authors 2015

2015-04-15

European Union has established an annual prize to promote European fiction authors who haven’t made a big breakthrough among big audiences yet. The prize, worth 5000 euros, is awarded to 12 authors who live in an EU country or in a number of non-EU countries in Europe. The winners in 2015 represent a great variety of European cultures and languages.

The European Union Prize for Literature is a joint effort by European book trade. The European Booksellers’ Federation, Writers’ Council, and the Federation of European Publishers all hope to encourage translations for books written in national languages. The winners were nominated by national juries.

The winners in 2015 were:

Carolina Schutti (Austria) for Einmal muss ich über weiches Gras gelaufen sein (Once I must have trodden soft grass). Otto Müller Verlag, 2012.

Luka Bekavac (Croatia) for Viljevo. Fraktura, 2013.

Gaëlle Josse (France) for Le dernier gardien d’Ellis Island (The last guardian of Ellis Island). Editions Noir sur Blanc, 2014.

Edina Szvoren (Hungary) for Nincs, és ne is legyen (There Is None, Nor Let There Be). Palatinus, 2012.

Donal Ryan (Ireland) for The Spinning Heart (Le cœur qui tourne). Doubleday Ireland, 2013.

Lorenzo Amurri (Italy) for Apnea. Fandango Libri, 2013.

Undinė Radzevičiūtė (Lithuania) for Žuvys ir drakonai (Fishes and Dragons). Baltos lankos, 2013.

Ida Hegazi Høyer (Norway) for Unnskyld (Forgive me). Tiden Norsk Forlag, 2014.
Magdalena Parys (Poland) for Magik (Magician). Świat Książki, 2014.

David Machado (Portugal) for Índice Médio de Felicidade (Average Happiness Index). Dom Quixote, 2013.

Svetlana Zuchova (Slovakia) for Obrazy zo života M. (Scenes from the Life of M.). Marenčin PT, 2013.

Sara Stridsberg (Sweden) for Beckomberga – ode till min familj (The Gravity of Love). Albert Bonniers Förlag, 2014.