By Edward Nawotka The European Commission is looking at ways to alter existing copyright law to make it easier for users to post digital copies of “orphan” works — those books with no apparent copyright holder. The new proposals “could also make it easier to acquire a single digital copyright covering the European Union, rather than having to deal with …
The Most Hated Book Down Under
Editorial by Andrew Wilkins MELBOURNE: Australia is a nation of booklovers, but you won’t find many fans for a new Australian paperback, ISBN 9781740372817. In fact, there’s an argument for saying it’s “Australia’s Most Hated Book.” That’s because it’s a report by an Australian Government think-tank, the Productivity Commission, which recommends (among other things) the abolition of the copyright protections …
Bonus Material: Take Our Survey on Australian Copyright Reform
By Andrew Wilkins There is no time frame set for the proposals made by the Australian Productivity Commission to alter copyright protections, as outlined in our lead article, to become law. The next step is for Australia’s Assistant Treasurer to consider the proposal, which he’s indicated he’s in no hurry to do. The ruling Australian Labour Party has announced a …
Top US/UK Trade Talk: B&N’s New Ebook Store, Copyright Earns $$$
By Edward Nawotka The big retailing news so far this month in the US has been the launch of Barnes & Noble’s ebook store, which will offer 700,000 titles for sale (a half million of those are public domain titles via Google). By comparison, Amazon offers approximately 300,000 titles, but does not break out public domain works. In conjunction with …
New AAP Prez Prioritizes Anti-piracy
NEW YORK: When Tom Allen took over as President of the Association of American Publishers, his chair was still warm. Pat Schroeder, the former Colorado congresswoman sat in the same chair from June 1997 until April 30 of this year and gave Allen just one month to get up to speed before she took off for Florida and “to sail …