11th Annual World Book and Copyright Day: April 23, 2006

"23 April: a symbolic date for world literature for on this date and in the same year of 1616, Cervantes, Shakespeare and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega all died...
By celebrating this Day throughout the world, UNESCO seeks to promote reading, publishing and the protection of intellectual property through copyright."

From the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization website.

Read the official message of Koïchiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO, declaring the 11th annual World Book and Copyright Day, this Sunday, April 23, 2006 here.

What We're Reading

The (very, very) short list of what and who we're reading:

Copyfight, "...touching on intellectual property conflicts, the evolution of copyright..."

The Institute for the Future of the Book, "Starting with the assumption that the locus of intellectual discourse is shifting from printed page to networked screen, the primary goal of the Institute for the Future of the Book is to explore, understand and influence this shift."

Lessig Blog, "Professor [Lawrence] Lessig teaches and writes in the areas of constitutional law, contracts, and the law of cyberspace."

Publishers Weekly, "The international voice for book publishing and bookselling."

Library Journal, "...edited to provide a one-stop source for all the information that library directors, managers, and others in public, academic, and corporate/institutional libraries."

American Booksellers Association - Bookselling This Week, The latest headlines in the book industry.

Find more in our 'links list' to the right, just below the headlines.
If you're on the web and in the book publishing industry, involved in copyright issues, or lbraries and content management, and think we should have a link to your site, .

Bip on Copyright

Marcel Marceau, world-renowned mime entertainer celebrated for his performances in 'Baptiste' and 'Praxitele and the Gold Fish' and best known for his alter ego 'Bip': the silent clown dressed in tattered black and white striped shirt and deflowered silk top hat, has another little-known title to his credit 'What is Copyright?'
Seriously.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) website hosts the four minute forty-four second film here.

Where Have I Been?

Google in Chinese = Gu Ge

Actually, Gu Ge means "song of the harvest of grain" but soon the word will be synonymous with Google as it eases into China's branch of the web at Google.cn with full compliace of the country's censorship laws.

Read more about the new Google name and what it means for China, Google, and the web in general here.

Have You Read That Great New...Blook?

Yes - it's one of the latest terms spawned from the blogosphere, and the moniker already has it's own literary prize to offer.

Like the Brangelina of the publishing world, 'blooks' as defined by LuLu the POD publisher, and the organizer of the 2006 Blooker Prize, are a hybrid of sorts:

If Copyright Was Just a Game...

The geeks at Dvorak offer their own version of the copyright fight, in a free and printable card game.

Each 'content card' is worth a whopping 10% of humanity's written works. Other cards that may help, or hinder, a player on their way to controlling 70% of all copyrighted material - the point at which the game is apparently won -include: 'book burning,' lawyers,' 'funding cut,' 'Project Gutenberg,' and 'raid.'

As if it could ever be that simple....

This is apparently an older design as there are no cards for Google, Napster, or Creative Commons - and Sonny Bono is in the deck.

Find the deck and rules here.

LJNDawson.com Brings the Latest Publishing Industry and Digital Content News Headlines to Visitors, 24 Hours a Day

In an effort to continue providing tailored information to publishing and content industry peers as well as to guests seeking general industry information LJNDawson.com has expanded its online presence to include an industry specific news-headlines feature.

Updated hourly, the most recent news headlines are featured on the site?s home page along with a link to LJNDawson.com?s extensive database of archived articles, searchable by keyword.

Powered by a custom program developed by Hamid Alipour of Hamidof.com, the feature utilizes RSS to aggregate the stories, reports, and discussions crucial to today?s publishing and digital content industries.

Visitors are encouraged to check the LJNDawson.com blog as well for Laura Dawson's veteran perspective on the same industry issues found in today?s headlines.

About Laura Dawson:
Laura Dawson is an 18-year veteran of the book industry. She has directed database and content development at Muze, Inc. and Barnes & Noble.com. She was a founding member of the ONIX Committee and continues to serve on the BISAC Metadata Committee which further develops the ONIX standards. In 2001, Ms. Dawson moved to Sirsi Corporation, where she developed content for library interfaces. She has given numerous presentations on patron usage, industry standards, and content development for libraries. In 2004, she became an independent consultant to the book and e-commerce industries.

For press inquiries, or to submit an RSS feed for inclusion in the LJNDawson site news feature please contact , assistant to Laura Dawson.