From Independent.ie:

Plans by Google in the US to scan millions of books into a giant digital archive have prompted fresh opposition from authors and publishers ahead of a court battle.

Opponents and supporters of the internet giant’s scheme are lining up for a legal fight over a complex deal agreed last year to fix royalty payments to authors.

The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York will decide in October whether the payment offer made by Google is fair.

The article goes on to note that Google has already scanned seven million out-of-print books. Full story here.

Reuters has a short video up about the movie Inkheart (based on the book by Cornelia Funke) and its world premiere. Nothing too fascinating, but it’s probably worth a look if you’ve read it and/or plan to see the film:

(Link to video on Reuters is here if the embedded video doesn’t play. You’ll have to watch a short commercial first.)

From the New York Times article:

Arthur C. Clarke, a writer whose seamless blend of scientific expertise and poetic imagination helped usher in the space age, died early Wednesday in Colombo, Sri Lanka, where he had lived since 1956. He was 90.

Rohan de Silva, an aide to Mr. Clarke, said the author died after suffering from breathing problems, The Associated Press reported.

From his detailed forecast of telecommunications satellites in 1945, more than a decade before the first orbital rocket flight, to his co-creation, with the director Stanley Kubrick, of the classic science fiction film “2001: A Space Odyssey,” Mr. Clarke was both prophet and promoter of the idea that humanity’s destiny lay beyond the confines of Earth.

Full story here.

From Times Online:

A unique volume of fairytales handwritten and illustrated by J.K. Rowling fetched nearly £2 million at auction today, far surpassing Sotheby’s estimated selling price of a mere £50,000. Following the auction, an astonished Miss Rowling said: “I am stunned and ecstatic. This will mean so much to children in desperate need of help. It means Christmas has come early for me.”

Read the full article here. View J.K. Rowlings website here.

This is from the Sydney Morning Herald:

New Nobel laureate Doris Lessing has used her acceptance speech to rail against the internet, saying it has “seduced a whole generation into its inanities” and created a world where people know nothing.

Similarly, author Andrew Keen argued in his new book, The Cult of the Amateur, that the internet was killing culture and assaulting economics.

Read the full article here on Sydney Morning Herald online.

From The Canadian Press:

A group of crusading intellectual property lawyers at Stanford Law School say they will help defend a small publishing house being sued by author J.K. Rowling over its plan to print an unauthorized companion guide to her Harry Potter series.

Full story on Google News; you can find the online version of the Harry Potter Lexicon at hp-lexicon.org or visit the publisher here.

The bestselling author of children’s and adults’ fiction explains how not being able to get to the library got her started and now she has no choice

The interview is available on Guardian Unlimited Books - or, take a look at Anne Fine’s official site.

The best-selling author of children’s fantasy trilogy His Dark Materials has been made an honorary professor at Bangor University.

Philip Pullman, who was educated at Ysgol Ardudwy in Harlech, is already an honorary fellow of the university.

The writer will take seminars for Bangor students and host discussions on literature and narrative structures.

Full story on BBC News.