We Write!
I'd like to highlight five news reports from the past couple of weeks that have a direct or indirect bearing on us as writers (and readers, of course). First, the Electronic Frontier Foundation reports on an interesting development where technology runs headlong into copyright law. Dymo’s latest generation of desktop label printers use RFID chips... Continue Reading →
David Langford warns: 7 November 2021 Today I discovered something I'd have kept back for Ansible if not for the December deadline involved. The National Library of New Zealand quietly announced in July that it's giving a huge tranche of discarded books from its overseas collection to the Internet Archive, which will digitize them all... Continue Reading →
This week brought news of a major publishing sale - and a reason for it that at first seemed odd to me. Publishing giant News Corp. is buying Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s consumer books division for $349 million as demand for printed reading material skyrockets. Houghton Mifflin’s HMH Books & Media book division — publisher of... Continue Reading →
This is a guest post by John van Stry on his precedent-setting lawsuit against a book pirate. His trail-blazing legal battle was costly, but ultimately won what he wanted: a legal recognition of the harm done by book pirates. From this point forward it will be simpler and less costly for authors to protect their... Continue Reading →
At least, that's the short version of the answer. The slightly longer version of the answer would be: how long has the original author or speaker been dead? This has come up a few times when I wanted to quote more than just the title of a song or poem. The rough rule of thumb... Continue Reading →
As promised, this is a link-post. I can guarantee that the links all worked, as of yesterday. However, not all of them go to equally usable sites. Some are more general IP, others are specific. I tried to avoid any that are so specific that you might not need them (i.e. things along the lines... Continue Reading →
From over at PG's place, the dreadful tale of a publisher-relationship that went badly wrong for the writer. Short version - he got stiffed and was not paid what he was owed. Dan Rhodes got curious about why one book wasn't earning anything. Here's the first part of the story, and the publisher's explanation: it... Continue Reading →
Yes, but what happens when your publisher doesn't? Medallion Press has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. That means it is going away, never to be seen again. What about the publishing rights of the authors currently under contract? Read the Passive Guy's comments and discussion. Short version - they are gone to whoever buys Medallion's... Continue Reading →
Although this applies primarily to internet content providers, specifically media outlets such as newspapers, TV, and news sites, the proposed revisions to European Union copyright and "Fair Use" rules could affect [afflict?] bloggers and writers as well, depending on how we use material and if we post things on-line for readers (Article 11) and the... Continue Reading →
The European Union has approved new copyright laws on digital content. They are to protect content providers from piracy and abuse of copyrighted material. Sounds great, except... https://publishingperspectives.com/2018/09/european-parliament-voices-for-against-copyright-directive/ If you use more than one word from a headline when you refer to an article, you are faced with a Use Tax or possible fine. And... Continue Reading →
Mad Genius Club 