Hachette Oversteps to Defend DRM
September 4, 2012
BoingBoing explains how, in publishing, open is really closed in “Hachette to Tor Authors: You Must Keep the DRM on Your Ebooks.” Since Tor Books famously dropped their DRM requirements, authors who publish with both that house and Hachette Book Group find themselves in an odd position.
Hachette is, apparently, on the opposite end of the DRM opinion spectrum from Tor; the word is that it has a strict no-DRM-free-editions-of-anything-anywhere policy. Writer Cory Doctorow reveals the contents of a letter he says was sent to an author who published with each company in different territories. He tells us the letter:
“. . .explains to the author that Hachette has ‘acquired exclusive publication rights in our territories from you in good faith,’ but warns that in other territories, Tor’s no-DRM policy ‘will make it difficult for the rights granted to us to be properly protected.’ Hachette’s proposed solution: that the author insist Tor use DRM on these titles. ‘We look forward to hearing what action you propose taking.'”
As the first commenter notes, the author might just propose switching publishers; I know I would. It takes a certain kind of arrogance for a publisher to think it can bully its authors into restricting the actions of its colleagues. In foreign territories.
Cynthia Murrell, September 04, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Science Exchange Spearheads Reproducibility Initiative
September 3, 2012
Reuters recently reported on a new fact checker for scientific studies in the article “More Trial, Less Error – An Effort to Improve Scientific Studies.”
According to the article, After discovering that scientific literature, ranging from social psychology to cancer biology, is filled with false findings and erroneous conclusions, Science Exchange recently announced that it will be embarking on a “Reproducibility Initiative,” aimed at improving the trustworthiness of published papers.
This is how it works:
“The initiative’s 10-member board of prominent scientists will match investigators with a lab qualified to test their results, said Elizabeth Iorns, Science Exchange’s co-founder and chief executive officer. The original lab would pay the second for its work. How much depends on the experiment’s complexity and the cost of study materials, but should not exceed 20 percent of the original research study’s costs. Iorns hopes government and private funding agencies will eventually fund replication to improve the integrity of scientific literature.
The two labs would jointly write a paper, to be published in the journal PLoS One, describing the outcome. Science Exchange will issue a certificate if the original result is confirmed.”
I was shocked to learn that Bayer Healthcare reported that its scientists could not reproduce some 75 percent of published findings in cardiovascular disease, cancer and women’s health. If this initiative goes through it should be a huge benefit to the healthcare industry and scientists everywhere.
Jasmine Ashton, September 03, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Authors Demand that Google Pay
August 29, 2012
Are authors pulling numbers from thin air? Yahoo News tells us, “Google Should Pay $750 a Book, Say Authors in Copyright Case.” Yes, the authors suing Google argue that the company should be forced to pay $750 per book it copied, distributed, or displayed in its great digitization project. The Reuters article states:
“The authors’ filing was lodged in federal court in the Southern District of New York last month, but was only made public on Friday. In the filing, the Authors Guild, whose president is novelist-lawyer Scott Thurow, urged the court to rule that Google’s digitization project does not constitute ‘fair use’ under copyright law.
“A Google spokeswoman said in an emailed statement: ‘We believe Google Books constitutes fair use by allowing users to identify interesting books and find ways to borrow or buy those books, much like a card catalog for the digital age.'”
Google Books does operate like a card catalog, and its page avows that they only reproduce, in part or in full, works for which they have permission to do so, or those that are out of print or otherwise unavailable “any other way.”
Litigation began not long after the 2004 agreement between Google and a number of libraries, including those at Harvard University, Oxford University andStanford University, to copy millions of tomes. Apparently authors thought they should have a say about the digital availability of their work. Over 20 million books have been scanned since the agreement was made.
Cynthia Murrell, August 29, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Inmagic Releases Presto with Web Publishing Capabilities
August 27, 2012
A new product is available from Inmagic that will enable many advanced Web-publishing capabilities for current DB/Text users.
The product, Presto for DB/Text, was created by the company to work with its current full featured, Web-based library management system and will enable new Web-publishing abilities while still allowing textbases to continue to be created and maintained in DB/Text. According to a post on Inmagic Inc. blog titled, “Announcing ‘Presto for DB/Text’,” capabilities include the ability to easily search across all textbases at once and display results in one view as well as integration of social features. We learn:
“Presto for DB/Text has been designed for customers that require advanced web-publishing capabilities without the need for custom programming, which is often necessary when using WebPublisher PRO. Presto for DB/Text does not replace WebPublisher PRO, however — WebPublisher PRO will continue to be enhanced and supported. Presto for DB/Text just gives DB/Text customers an additional option for publishing information to the Internet or their intranet.”
Additional (albeit optional and at a cost to the customer,) features include SharePoint integration, federated search, and the ability to add and create native Presto databases/content types. We are interested to see more from the company and are excited about these available features.
Andrea Hayden, August 27, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Pirate Bay Damages May Not Be Going to Help Musicians
August 21, 2012
If this is true, we are horrified—imagine, improper actions from traditional music publishers! TechEYE.net charges, “Big Content Lied About Helping Artists.” The Swedish lawsuit against torrent download site Pirate Bay, not surprisingly, found the site guilty of copyright violations. The music labels insist they have the artists’ needs at heart when pursuing such litigation—isn’t that sweet? It would be, if it were true. The write up states:
“According to TorrentFreak, it turns out that none of the damages will actually go to any artists. All the cash has been allocated to International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) to fund new anti-piracy campaigns.
“Part of the sentence were damages that have to be paid to various entertainment industry companies. EMI Music, Universal Music, Sony Music and other labels. Of that, €550,000 was supposed to compensate artists and rights holders for the losses they suffered. Unfortunately for the artists, the court money goes to the IFPI, which has decided to pocket it.”
Of course, the whole issue is academic; no one can find any Pirate Bay assets in Sweden, and the Swedish enforcement agency is not allowed to hunt for any outside of that country. Still, it is the principle of the thing. Former Pirate Bay spokesperson Peter Sunde asserts that, as far as he knows, no money awarded in any lawsuit brought by recording industry reps IFPI or RIAA has ever gone to artists.
So. . . who are we trying to protect here?
Cynthia Murrell, August 21, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Europe Goes Open with Research
August 17, 2012
Europe appears to be changing the way publishing licenses operate with releases of open-access policies from two groups that may set the pace for the entire country.
The European Commission and Research Councils U.K. both recently adopted requirements concerning open-access policies for journal articles. The EC will require journal articles based on research funded through its Horizon 2020 program to be accessible for free either online immediately upon publication or in a repository after an embargo period. Research Councils U.K. adopted a similar policy which will apply to all publically funded research in the U.K., beginning with papers submitted in April 2013.
An article from Chemical and Engineering News, “Europe Opens Up,” tells us more about the changes:
“When an author pays a fee for immediate open access, the U.K. policy requires the author to get a liberal publishing license. The license allows others to modify, distribute, and build upon the work, provided they credit the original author.
The EC encouraged all other member states to take similar steps for research funded by their domestic programs, setting a goal of having 60% of European-government-funded research freely accessible by 2016.”
The rest of Europe will likely be encouraged to follow suit by these groups. We think this is an interesting pressure applied to professional publishing outfits, but are curious to see if the exploitation of scientific results will make science move faster.
Andrea Hayden, August 17, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Will Video Inject New Revenue Into Venerable Kiplinger
August 17, 2012
Why just read advice when you can watch it? According to MSN Money’s article “blinkx Partners with Kiplinger for Personal Finance Wisdom” Kiplinger wants to go viral with their well-respected advice.
Most people think YouTube when they hear video, but blinkx has more than 35 million hours of audio and video content available with a customized search platform. Now they are combining with a company that holds the prestige of a well preserved antique in the world of finance wisdom.
Kiplinger is broadening blinkx’s financial horizon in hopes of expanding their viewer range:
“Kiplinger’s is one of the most trusted and well-respected sources for consumers seeking financial advice. Whether you’re a recent graduate coping with student loans or a parent looking for tips on tax breaks, our video library has helpful personal finance advice for you. We’re pleased to partner with blinkx to increase our exposure to new audiences and to make our video reports easily searchable for consumers around the world.”
Will video inject new revenue into the venerable Kiplinger? This noble company publishes the longest running newsletter in the US and is only one decade from the century mark. The print newsletters are not what they use to be and more presses collect dust every year.
This gosling does not think Kiplinger will receive any monumental renown via blinkx, but we’ll have to wait and see. In the meantime, Kiplinger does deserve a 12 Honk salute for reaching antique status.
Jennifer Shockley, August 17, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Some Countries Still Prefer to Read the Newspaper
August 13, 2012
Science Daily recently posted the article “Online News Takes Off in US and UK While Most Germans Prefer a Newspaper” shines a bright light on traditional publishers. Unfortunately for American journalists, Germany seems to be the only country left that prefers print news.
According to the article, a recent study published by the University’s Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, based on surveys in UK, US, France, Germany and Denmark, found that While the majority of Germans prefer print news over online, US and UK residents prefer to access their news online. More specifically. 28% of UK and US residents access the news from their mobile phones and 60% of tablet users in the UK regularly access online news.
Report author Nic Newman, a Research Associate at Oxford University’s Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, said:
“For many people digital news is now the first place to go for the latest news, rivaling television as the most frequently accessed type of news in the UK and the US. Of those surveyed, nearly eight out of ten people accessed online news every week, but the transition from print to digital is much slower in other European countries. The report suggests that the Germans were the least likely to access news online of the five countries studied with almost seven out of ten, of those surveyed, saying they still read a newspaper.”
As online news continues to thrive in some western countries, it is interesting to see that others remain attached to traditional media forms.
Jasmine Ashton, August 13, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Elsevier Ethics?
August 8, 2012
Ah, pay to play. That’s the way to stimulate objective information, all right. A blog out of the Unilever Cambridge Centre for Molecular Information rails against such a move in the long-windedly titled post: "Elsevier Replies About Hybrid #openacess; I Am Appalled About their Practices. Breaking Licences and Having to Pay to Read ‘Open Access’."
As many of our readers know, scientific authors pay traditional publishers hefty "processing charges" to have their work made available to readers for free ("open access"). An outdated and, some say, unfair system, this way of doing business is at least transparent and well understood. Now, Elsevier’s Division of Universal Access has come up with the "hybrid open access."
Blogger Peter Murray-Rust, wondering exactly what sort of creature this hybrid could be, asked the Division’s director for clarification. Among his discoveries: obfuscation is alive and well. Also, Elsevier is clearly refusing commercial re-use and distribution of these works, violating, according to Murray-Rust, the authors’ Creative Commons CC-BY license. (There is some debate in the blog’s comments section about whether this is indeed a legal violation; clearly it is a moral one.)
Murray-Rust reproduces the director’s answers and comments on each—well worth checking out. He concludes with this analysis:
"Elsevier’s appalling practice speaks for itself. There are only the following explanations:
- Elsevier break licences knowingly and deliberately charge for ‘open access’. (Readers will remember that Elsevier also created fake journals).
- Elsevier are incompetent or uninterested in running Open Access properly.
"I predict that Universal Access will plead ‘this was an isolated mistake; forgive us and we’ll correct it’. Rubbish. It is not acceptable to charge people for things they have no right to charge for. It is unacceptable to break licences. Whatever the motives it shows that at best they don’t care. It’s morally the same as ‘sorry I knocked you down because my brakes didn’t work.’"
Elsevier certainly got this blogger’s hackles up, and for good reason. Creative Commons licenses exist to benefit society, and it is more than a little irritating for a publisher to play fast and loose with the rules.
Cynthia Murrell, August 9, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
The Future of Libraries
August 8, 2012
The Republic perceives the inevitable winds and encourages us to adjust our sails in “The Bookless Library.” No matter how much some of us would like to believe otherwise, the traditional library with its stacks upon stacks of wood pulp tomes is on its way out. In a lengthy article that is worth a read, journalist David A. Bell suggests we proactively manage the shift in a way that will best benefit society.
This paragraph was particularly poignant to me:
“Specialized scholars will always have reasons to consult the original paper copies of books. Marginalia, watermarks, paper quality, binding, and many other features of the physical book that digitization cannot always capture offer valuable clues about how the books were produced, circulated, and read, how they created meaning. But this sort of research . . . involves a small number of readers. Far more readers, of course, appreciate physical books for their aesthetic qualities: the feel of the paper, the crisp look of print on the page, the elegant binding, the pleasant heft of the volume in the hand, the sense of history embedded in a venerable edition that has gone through many owners. But this sort of pleasure, real and meaningful as it is, is harder to justify financially, as resources grow increasingly scarce.”
Sigh. Yes, it will only get harder for libraries to justify buying and housing physical books when the electronic versions are widely available. But, as Bell notes, libraries are more than shelves of books. They are, as he puts it, “grand temples of learning,” and without them, much study, communication, and inspiration will fall by the wayside. What, then, should we do?
Bell’s advice hinges on revisiting the original purposes of the library: public outreach and public instruction, both of which were, at the time, best met by providing access to the printed word. Libraries, he says, should adjust by expanding on efforts many are already making, like hosting seminars, book clubs, art and film exhibits, and study centers. That way, even as their stacks dwindle, libraries can remain relevant and continue to serve their communities.
Cynthia Murrell, August 8, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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