More important than that article is a link within that article. If you do a search for
Wealthy males supporting e-books market you can read the actual article with this link -
Google and Hachette in landmark deal.
And THAT article gives hope to both the French and the rest of us. Basically Hachette has given Google the right to scan in
and sell many of its out of print books.
This is not the same deal as the US/Google deal.
"Google and Hachette Livre have struck a groundbreaking deal allowing the world’s second largest retail book publisher to control the scanning and electronic sale of its out-of-print French language titles."
"The agreement, covering about 50,000 mostly forgotten works of French literature and non-fiction still under copyright, is unlikely to bring in big revenues for the French group, which is owned by Lagardère. But it is a symbolic victory for publishers around the world trying to protect their businesses against the encroachment on their territory of the internet."
And there is always a forking idiot in the crowd -
"Goggle’s books project is regarded by some French political figures as a US assault on France’s cultural heritage."
Opening up
"about 50,000 mostly forgotten works of French literature" is going to damage "France’s cultural heritage"? That statement says all you need to know about the total stupidity of politicians around the whole world.