John Battelle’s favorite web-to-print company has made a deal to produce photo books from albums on Flickr and Buzznet.

QOOP doesn’t have a lot of content on its web site yet, and is pretty cryptic about its operations beyond being a “product delivery solutions” company. However, search engine industry expert John Batelle’s 2004 observations can be purchased in book form from the site.

Beyond that, according to an entry in Mr. Batelle’s Searchblog, QOOP has a deal in place to publish photo books. Content for those books would come from Flickr and Buzznet, both online sites where photographers can share their work with others.

Searchblog goes on to ask what could happen if Google Print decides QOOP would be a swell partner. QOOP prints an out-of-print book, one a publisher has no interest in reprinting, and only QOOP, Google Print, and the author (or the author’s estate) profit from the sale. The publisher gets nothing.

And then there are rights issues to consider, as he further notes:

“Would an out of print reprint of a book found via Google search and printed and sold in a one-off fashion via something like QOOP be first serial still, or would it be second serial?”
The publishing industry has been steadfastly against Google Print, threatening legal action against Google. An attempt by Google to placate publishers by agreeing not to scan any books they request to have excluded was also blasted by the Association of American Publishers.

David Utter is a staff writer for webproworld covering technology and business. Email him here.