Google Brings eBookstore To Canada

Google Inc. is bringing its digital bookstore to Canada, in an effort to write the next chapter of the digital publishing evolution North of the border.

On Tuesday, Google announced it was launching the Google eBookstore in Canada,

which will enable Canadian book lovers to download digital books which can then be read on tablets, e-readers and PCs. The new online storefront for digital books goes live today.

Google also plans to offer independent Canadian book sellers the opportunity to sell their books online and the Mountain View, California has partnered with several independent retailers to launch the project.

“Google believes Canadians should have access to the books they want, should be able to read books on the device they want, and should be able to buy books from the bookstore they want,” the company said in a press release.

Google’s entry into the Canadian marketplace will present a challenge to established e-publishing heavyweights, including Amazon.com Inc. and Toronto’s Kobo Inc. — which counts Indigo Books & Music Ltd. as its primary shareholder.

At launch, the Google eBookstore in Canada will boast a library of “thousands” of digital books for sale, as well as more than two million public domain books, which will be offered for free.

Readers will be able to enjoy Google’s e-books on just about any device, including smartphones and tablets powered by the company’s Android operating system. However, the books will also be available on Apple Inc.’s iPad, as well as on e-readers from Kobo, Sony Corp. and Barnes and Noble’s Nook.

Google will offer books from all major Canadian publishing houses, including Penguin, Random House and Harper Collins. Google has also secured deals with House of Anansi, Dundurn, and McGill Queens University Press.

As well, the company has struck partnerships with the CBC’s Canada Reads Program, the Globe and Mail and the Quill & Quire.

Google confirmed its plans to bring the eBookstore to Canada earlier this year in an interview with Quill & Quire.

In the United States, Google’s e-bookstore boasts a catalogue that numbers more than a million titles, and the company boasts a reseller program with more than 200 partners.

Google first announced plans to become a major player in the digital book world in 2004 when it launched the Google Library project. The company has spent the last several years digitizing millions of books from libraries around the world — including in the United States, Europe and Japan — as part of its Google Print Library project.

Google has stated in the past that the Library project is not directly connected to its burgeoning e-book business.

However, the Library project was almost immediately met with criticism from authors and publishers who complained that Google was digitizing books that were still under copyright as well as titles that were already in the public domain.

In 2005, both the Association of American Publishers and a group representing authors launched lawsuits against Google claiming the search giant was inadequately compensating authors and publishers for the use of copyrighted material.

Both sides reached a settlement in 2008 in a deal that would see Google offer compensation to both authors and publishers in exchange for making millions of books available online, however, earlier this year, a U.S. judge rejected the deal