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Publishers Attempting to Head Off Google

Category: Publishing , Copyright Law , Google
From Information World Review comes this article detailing how the "Major publishers are racing ahead with their alternative offerings to Google Book Search" with Harper Collins Publishing heading up a major effort in a deal with Newsstand, an online media distributor.

Macmillan Publishing is also reportedly working to develop its own online variation "BookStore" beyond the working-prototype stage.

Richard Charkin, chief executive of Macmillan is quoted as saying, "Publishers have to get their act together with the entry of Yahoo and Microsoft into the arena alongside Amazon and Google.”
 
Find the entire article, with links to more info about Macmillan's effort, here.
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Posted by Laura Dawson , May 31, 06, 8:27 AM , comments(0) , permalink , Email this post

Lessig: The Law vs. Technology

Category: Copyright Law , Digital Publishing
Professor Lawrence Lessig, founder of Creative Commons, and copyright-law expert details his thoughts on what he sees as a "war being fought against creativity" on the field of technology in this article from the BBC.

Lessig suggests a new approach to copyright law, advising that the relative industries: "Embrace and celebrate the potential of new technology. Stop suing our creativity back into the dark ages of the 20th Century."

Lessig touches on the hazards of stifling projects such as Google Print, and calls the new glut of copyright issues "the age prohibition."

Read the complete article here.

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Posted by Laura Dawson , May 30, 06, 4:11 PM , comments(0) , permalink , Email this post

Upcoming: Educational Publishing Summit

Category: Publishing
June 7-9, 2006 in Washington D.C. the Association of Educational Publishers hosts the 2006 Educational Publishing Summit.

Events and activities for industry professionals, listed in the summit schedule include:
-Learn about the most current educational trends
-Network among industry executives
-Review cutting edge educational technologies
-Uncover new markets and distribution channels
-Get an education policy and government relations update
-Receive professional development for educational professionals in Sales & Marketing, Editorial & Product Development, and Management
-Participate in the 2nd Annual Action Auction

View the official event website here.
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Posted by Laura Dawson , May 29, 06, 6:56 AM , comments(0) , permalink , Email this post

John Updike at BEA Podcast Released

Category: Publishing
The much talked about speech by John Updike from the Book and Author Breakfast at BookExpo America has just been released as a podcast on the BEA's BookExpoCast website.
From the site: "Mr. Updike abandoned a speech about his new book, Terrorist, in favor of a passionate discussion of books and booksellers — whom he called 'the citadels of light'."

Listen to the 20 minute podcast here.
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Posted by Laura Dawson , May 26, 06, 7:14 AM , comments(0) , permalink , Email this post

The Green Press Initiative

Category: Publishing
With the recent announcement of Random House's commitment to using more recycled paper in its Stateside printing presses, we got curious about just who else in the industry is involved in the Green Press Initiative and found a short but healthy list of participants including:Lantern Books, Harvard University Press, Houghton Mifflin, Scholastic, Square One Publishing, and the Association of American Publishers.

According to the GPI website:
"The paper industry is the largest consumer of forests in the Southern US, currently logging an estimated 5 million acres of forests (an area the size of New Jersey) each year.

75% of the tree plantations established in the last 20 years have been established at the expense of natural forests.

Tree plantations host about 90 percent fewer species than the forests that preceded them  and require the use of toxic herbicides and fertilizers.

The Southern US, which contains the most biologically diverse forests in North America is the largest paper-producing region in the world.

Rural communities where the paper industry is concentrated are economically worse off than other rural communities, experiencing higher levels of poverty and unemployment and lower expenditures on public education."

Major applause for those publishers who've already taken measures to step up to the enviromental plate, and a nudge to those who've not yet done so.

To learn more about the Green Press Initiative, visit their website.
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Posted by Laura Dawson , May 25, 06, 1:09 PM , comments(0) , permalink , Email this post

If You Missed BEA 2006

Category: Publishing
You can check out the upcoming series of podcasts at BookExpoCast, starting with the opening night keynote speech of this year's BookExpo America, with Tim Russert, author and host of Meet the Press.
Find the 40+ minute cast here.
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Posted by Laura Dawson , May 24, 06, 6:40 AM , comments(0) , permalink , Email this post

URGENT - Yes, the government IS reading your emails

This is a bit of a switch for me to be blogging about, but I have not seen this picked up anywhere else. At 2 a.m. yesterday, Wired posted an account from a former technician at AT&T, Mark Klein, describing his participation in an NSA program called "Total Information Awareness".

Klein details his experience while he was working for San Francisco's AT&T WorldNet. Just one excerpt:

In 2003 AT&T built "secret rooms" hidden deep in the bowels of its central offices in various cities, housing computer gear for a government spy operation which taps into the company's popular WorldNet service and the entire internet. These installations enable the government to look at every individual message on the internet and analyze exactly what people are doing. Documents showing the hardwire installation in San Francisco suggest that there are similar locations being installed in numerous other cities.

According to Wired, there is a file that describes AT&T's compliance in the NSA program under seal in a San Francisco courthouse. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has filed suit to unseal these documents, and their information on the case is quite thorough. 

As the saying goes, just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you. The man about to be confirmed as head of the CIA is the man who has authorized this program and the phone wiretapping program for the NSA.

What can you do? Pass this blog post around. 

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Posted by Laura Dawson , May 23, 06, 7:47 AM , comments(0) , permalink , Email this post

Stalked by the Pillsbury Doughboy

I was standing at the John Wiley & Sons booth, waiting for the estimable Jim Lichtenberg to meet me for lunch, an 8-foot-tall Pillsbury Doughboy sneaked up behind me. I say "sneaked" because the ambient sound of Trade Show Air is much like that of an airplane without the noise reduction headphones.

The Doughboy loomed.

The Doughboy gesticulated.

The Doughboy did everything but tap me on the shoulder or yell, "HEY YOU!" - which, I suppose, doughboys do not do. At least, not doughboys who want to get paid.

I amused myself by not responding to this particular Doughboy, moving around, then turning my back on him, then staring him blankly in the face, and in general pushing him to his absolute limit in trying to get me to poke him in the belly without actually asking me to. Mercifully, Jim arrived and rescued the situation from getting too ugly. Biscuits at 11.

The fact that this is what I am blogging about is an indication of the excitement level of this particular BEA. Last year, of course, we were spoiled by the excitement of Google Print - this year, we had...BookSurge. (Oh boy!)

So...no controversy, much ISBN-13, a little GDSN - and so we look forward to next year. A little calm between storms is probably a good thing.

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Posted by Laura Dawson , May 22, 06, 9:00 PM , comments(0) , permalink , Email this post

BookExpo America 2006

Category: Publishing
Laura has just returned to New York from BEA 2006, and while we await her take on the event, which drew thousands of booksellers, publishers, authors, and other industry insiders, here's a peek into the highlights from the conference/exhibition via an article from The Washington Times.

You can also view pictures, and sign up to receive notification of the upcoming series of podcasts from BookExpo America 2006 - which will include a speech by author John Updike, who reportedly brought the house down in applause with his heartfelt references to the non-digital age; an era seemingly passed in the book industry.
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Posted by Laura Dawson , May 22, 06, 3:39 AM , comments(0) , permalink , Email this post

Random House Goes a Bit More Green

Category: Publishing
Random House is vowing to increase the percentage of recycled paper it uses to print books in the U.S. (though there are no figures describing just how much of it's printing is done in the States as opposed to overseas.)
Currently, RH publishes books stateside with 3% recycled content, and plans to up that to 30% by 2010.
Any move in this direction is a good one, even the slightest, so kudos to the publishing giant for making the step toward environmental awareness and protection in an industry that relies heavily on natural resources to make a profit.
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Posted by Laura Dawson , May 19, 06, 7:23 AM , comments(0) , permalink , Email this post

Vinton Cerf: Father Net and Google Exec on Google Book Search

Category: Publishing , Copyright Law , Google , Digital Publishing
Ask and you shall receive: just yesterday we were wondering if anyone had anything to say these days about Google Book Search - and voila, an article from the Washington Post today "Google's Goal: A Worldwide Web of Books" talks to Vinton Cert, famous for his participation in the founding of the internet and current Google exec, about his own "dead-tree" book collection and thoughts on digitizing.

Find the article here.

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Posted by Laura Dawson , May 18, 06, 7:13 AM , comments(0) , permalink , Email this post

Google Blogs Book Search

Category: Google , Metadata
Google's got yet another blog running, to add to the already existing 22 some-odd blogs - this one "Inside Google Book Search" looks at what's going on in the Google Book Search (previously 'Google Print') Project - something we've not heard much news on lately, particularly from the publishing sector.
What IS going on with Google's project these days?
According to the site, with the "Sample Pages View" - "If the publisher of author has given us permission, users can see a limited number of pages from the book." and with the "Full Book View" - visitors can read the entire book via Google Book Search "...if the book is out of copyright, or if the publisher or author has asked to make the book fully viewable."

With 'buy this book' and 'find this book in a local library' links Google Book Search is much more than a digital card catalog and extract repository.

In an attempt to curb any negative publicity regarding copyright issues with the project, the site also hosts a News and Views section where authors, publishers, and readers, etc. can and have shared their project participation 'success stories.'
In further defense of the project Google writes, "Some of our critics believe that somehow Google Book Search will become a substitute for the printed word. To the contrary, our goal is to improve access to books – not to replace them...
Copyright law is supposed to ensure that authors and publishers have an incentive to create new work, not stop people from finding out that the work exists. By helping people find books, we believe we can increase the incentive to publish them. After all, if a book isn't discovered, it won't be bought."

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Posted by Laura Dawson , May 17, 06, 7:13 AM , comments(0) , permalink , Email this post

Scholastic Lawsuit Dismissed

Category: Publishing
From the Seattle Times P.I., a report on the dismissal of a lawsuit against Scholastic, globally the largest publisher of children's books, intended to establish that Scholastic was responsible for billing consumers for unwanted books.
For the full article, click here.
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Posted by Laura Dawson , May 16, 06, 7:06 AM , comments(0) , permalink , Email this post

Kevin Kelly of Wired Magazine on Book Scanning and the Digital Library

Category: Publishing , Copyright Law , Google , E-commerce , Digital Publishing
From The New York Times Magazine comes "Scan This Book! " a fascinating insider's analysis on the future of the digital book, the concept of a universal library, and the publishing industry's lawsuit against Google's book digitization project.

"The dream is an old one: to have in one place all knowledge, past and present. All books, all documents, all conceptual works, in all languages...

Scanning technology has been around for decades, but digitized books didn't make much sense until recently, when search engines like Google, Yahoo, Ask and MSN came along. When millions of books have been scanned and their texts are made available in a single database, search technology will enable us to grab and read any book ever written. Ideally, in such a complete library we should also be able to read any article ever written in any newspaper, magazine or journal. And why stop there? The universal library should include a copy of every painting, photograph, film and piece of music produced by all artists, present and past. Still more, it should include all radio and television broadcasts. Commercials too. And how can we forget the Web? The grand library naturally needs a copy of the billions of dead Web pages no longer online and the tens of millions of blog posts now gone — the ephemeral literature of our time. In short, the entire works of humankind, from the beginning of recorded history, in all languages, available to all people, all the time."

Read the article in full, here.

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Posted by Laura Dawson , May 15, 06, 7:16 AM , comments(0) , permalink , Email this post

Announcing the Birth of Bloggapedia

Category: Company News
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Posted by Laura Dawson , May 8, 06, 6:23 AM , comments(0) , permalink , Email this post

Section 108

Category: Copyright Law
The Section 108 Study Group "is a select committee of copyright experts, convened by the Library of Congress, and charged with updating for the digital world the Copyright Act's balance between the rights of creators and copyright owners and the needs of libraries and archives."

According to the group's website: "
The purpose of the Section 108 Study Group is to conduct a reexamination of the exceptions and limitations applicable to libraries and archives under the Copyright Act, specifically in light of the changes wrought by digital media. The group will study how Section 108 of the Copyright Act may need to be amended to address the relevant issues and concerns of libraries and archives, as well as creators and other copyright holders. The group will provide findings and recommendations on how to revise the copyright law in order to ensure an appropriate balance among the interests of creators and other copyright holders, libraries and archives in a manner that best serves the national interest. The findings and recommendations will be submitted by mid-2006 to the Librarian of Congress."

Learn more about the group, the section of copyrght law they're dealing with, or submit your issue-related comments here. 

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Posted by Laura Dawson , May 4, 06, 7:09 AM , comments(0) , permalink , Email this post

Google Has Taken the Hit

Category: Copyright Law , Google
this time around, as a California judge ruled against the internet mega-company for violating the copyrights of an adult entertainment website by displaying thumbnail images from the site in it's image search results.
The court's analysis of the circumstances, as well as the final ruling, was based in part on "Kelly vs. Arriba Soft Corp." a previous case that left a thumbnail/copyright issue law on the books in 2003.

The court also looked at Section 107 of the Copyright Act which states:
"The reproduction of a copyrighted work will not constitute infringement of the copyright if the use is for "criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship and research." This fair use doctrine also lists four factors to evaluate whether a particular use is fair: "(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes; (2) the nature of the copyrighted work; (3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and (4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work." 17 U.S.C. §107."

For a detailed legal analysis of the court's decision on "Perfect 10 vs. Google" from the San Deigo Source, click here.


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Posted by Laura Dawson , May 3, 06, 8:23 AM , comments(0) , permalink , Email this post

Copyright Office Tries To Place Orphans

Category: Copyright Law
From today's copyright issue headlines:

"The Copyright Office is proposing legislation that would make it easier for libraries, universities and archives, including the Library of Congress, to digitize collections that contain “orphan works.”

These orphans are the millions of unidentified but copyright works that are in danger of slipping into obscurity because their owners cannot be found.

'Our primary goal is to construct a system that more often brings owners and users together,” but still allows use of the work if the owner cannot be found, said Jule Sigall, the Copyright Office’s associate register for policy and international affairs.'"

Read the complete article here.
Source: GCN
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Posted by Laura Dawson , May 2, 06, 7:46 AM , comments(0) , permalink , Email this post

BookExpo America Live This Month

Category: Publishing , Industry Events
BookExpo America is slated to kick off this month - beginning on May 17th with a full-day Writer's Conference and continuing on through the 21st with more conferences, kiosks, networking, and brainstorming on all things publishing and book related.

Held in Washington D.C. at the Washington Convention Center, this year's event is not to be missed by booksellers and retailers, librarians and educators, publishers, and publishing industry professionals.

Find all the info you need to register, make your travel plans, and get a glimpse into the who, what, and why of BookExpo America here. 
Or, you can download a whopping 36-page PDF program of the entire event.

See you there!


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Posted by Laura Dawson , May 1, 06, 7:52 AM , comments(0) , permalink , Email this post
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