guilds

PARK CITY, UTAH--The most arresting moment in "Google and the World Brain," Ben Lewis' thoughtful new documentary about the search giant's effort to scan all the world's books, takes place not in Mountain View or a courtroom but rather a monastery high above Catalonia in Spain.

The film's globetrotting crew is interviewing Father Damiá Roure, who runs the library at the Benedictine abbey of Montserrat, about what happened when Google came to digitize the library's collection. Roure speaks happily of the Googlers' visit, explaining that their efforts allowed the monks to bring their … Read more

Expansive gameplay, lots of options, and absolutely gorgeous art -- we love how developers of the Ayakashi: Ghost Guild app have put enough effort to make this game as fun and competitive to play as possible. This app offers many things to keep the player busy, although it does suffer from one small Achilles' heel: The battle system is too simple.

Keeping in mind that this is a card battle role-playing game (RPG), we already expected that the interface of Ayakashi: Ghost Guild would be pretty comprehensive. But even though there are so many menus to navigate into, the main … Read more

Congrats to Marvin P. of Missoula, Mont., for winning a MyCharge Portable Power Bank 6000 in last week's giveaway.

Are you a massive fan of massively multiplayer online role-playing games? Then you'll massively like this week's prize, a Guild Wars 2 Collector's Edition, plus five Digital Edition access codes you can share with friends. Say goodbye to your free time, folks.

The fantasy MMO, released in late August, takes place in Tyria, "an endlessly intriguing place, stuffed with mystery and adventure, gifting you with gorgeous sights and personal stories that etch themselves into your memory," according to a review from our sister site GameSpot. … Read more

Google is trying to convince the courts to throw out a book-scanning lawsuit filed against it by the Authors Guild.

In a brief submitted to the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals last Friday, Google argued that a suit filed on behalf of all authors whose books have been scanned shouldn't be allowed because most authors support the scanning.

Backing up its claim, the company yet again cited a survey that found 58 percent of the authors polled approved of Google scanning their books so the content could be searched online. A full 45 percent said they had … Read more

The Authors Guild is ready to take on Google Books after its book-scanning lawsuit "cleared a major hurdle," Authors Guild President Scott Turow wrote in a blog post published today.

"We're one big step closer to justice being done for U.S. authors," Turow wrote.

U.S. District Court Judge Denny Chin yesterday gave the guild the green light to sue Google as a class of authors, allowing the organization to represent in the suit other writers and their heirs with a copyright interest in books that were scanned by Google as part of their … Read more

A judge filed a ruling today that gives authors, photographers, and illustrators the green light to sue Google.

The ruling allows the drawn-out court case -- over Google Books' practice of scanning book out of print and copyrighted content for Web searches -- to move forward. The suit will now determine if Google's argument that it has a fair-use defense has any merit.

In his ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Denny Chin, from the Southern District of New York, said the Authors Guild and another group has a right to pursue the suit on behalf of other authors. … Read more

Vendetta Online is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game that lets you pilot a spaceship and seek your fortune in a vast universe. The graphics are somewhat dated by today's standards, but there's a ton of content to explore and much to discover as you slowly advance your ship by mining and completing quests.

You have plenty of options for how you want to experience the Vendetta Online universe. You get to choose from three factions, two of which are at war, while the third is made up of independent traders. There are several different types of ships, … Read more

The Authors Guild agreed to a controversial settlement with Google because it feared repeating the mistakes that the music industry has made in dealing with digital works, it said Friday.

Google and the Authors Guild have struggled to get final approval of a settlement granting Google the right to continue a six-year book-scanning project than has digitized 12 million titles. Objections to that settlement from authors and academics have been heated, and despite revisions, the U.S. Department of Justice continued to object in principle to the settlement on Thursday, saying "the (revised agreement) purports to grant legal rights … Read more

One thing Droid users can lord over iPhone fanatics is the new porn app. Yes, with no Apple adult minding its app catalog, Android users can go adult. We also debate the reality of Cyber Monday and congratulate Twitter on being word of the year. Plus, we know you're all wishing for Macs for Christmas, but you're going to get a Netbook. Amazon doesn't lie.

Black Friday boasts $595 million in U.S. online holiday spending, up 11 percent … Read more