Monthly Archives: August 2009

Timothy K. Armstrong has self-archived "Shrinking the Commons: Termination of Copyright Licenses and Transfers for the Benefit of the Public" in SSRN.
Here's an excerpt:

Federal law limits the free alienability of copyright rights to prevent powerful transferees from forcing authors into unremunerative bargains. The limiting mechanism is a statutory provision that permits authors or their heirs, [...] Continue reading →

In "Digital Publishing: E-Reader Scorecard," Publishers Weekly compares a dozen e-book readers.

Related Posts

Sony Announces New E-Book Reader, the Reader Daily Edition, Plus Library Finder Application
Publishers Weekly Surveys on the Google Book Search Settlement
Sony Offers One Million Public Domain Books for Its Current E-Book Readers
EFF Releases Letter to Google about Reader Privacy and Google Book Search
Open [...] Continue reading →

The University of Illinois Library's Grainger Engineering Library is recruiting a Visiting Research Programmer (1 year initial appointment; funded for a maximum of 3 years).
Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The Research Programmer will be appointed to support current digital library research projects, including grant-funded projects. Appointee will work on at least two different projects, reporting [...] Continue reading →

In "Digital Library Europeana Said To Be Europe’s Answer to Google Books Settlement," Dugie Standeford examines Google Book Search in the European context and considers whether Europeana can compete with it.
Here's an excerpt:

Europeana has the potential to be the "Google-like service Europe needs" but as part of a broader vision, said Europeana Marketing and Communications [...] Continue reading →

Copycense has published an editorial asking "Is Creative Commons Good for Copyright?"
Here's an excerpt:

We conclude now, as we did in 2007, that the continued use and prominence of Creative Commons licenses actually obscures the real copyright issues we face in this country, and keeps Americans from settling on the proper parameters of digital information use, [...] Continue reading →

We are pleased to announce that Episode 24 of the UC Press podcast series is now available. In this episode, Chris Gondek of Heron and Crane Productions interviews Gerald Nachman as he recalls the impact Ed Sullivan had on our… Continue reading →

We are pleased to announce that Episode 23 of the UC Press podcast series is now available. In this episode, Chris Gondek of Heron and Crane Productions interviews Shelley Fisher Fishkin as she discusses the evolution of Twain’s support for… Continue reading →

I just received the following email from Laura McDonald of Girlebooks about Amazon blocking one of her public domain books.  It seems to me to be another example of Amazon inexperience in the ebook area and a case of making a foolish marketing decision without thinking the facts through.  The correspondence is below and [...] Continue reading →

Is this a lot or a little?  According to Publishing Perspectives nobody really knows:
The GfK (Gesellschaft für Konsumforschung), a market research and consumer insight agency, recently announced that 65,000 e-books were sold in Germany in the first half of 2009. Boersenblatt editor Michael Roesler-Graichen analyzes the significance of this figure, stating that most industry insiders [...] Continue reading →