Publishers,authors, and technology: A look backward and forward

New technology is not always used to its full potential. Economic and market considerations, issues of quality, and the social and political setting may impose barriersto the exploitation of new inventions. This article describes the impact of the typewriter on the division of labor between author and publisher and analyzes the reasons for the general delay in its adoption. It then reviews obstacles to greater use of the computer and offers some predictions for the near future. Beth Luey, senior lecturer and director of historical editing and publishing at Arizona State University, writes frequently on author/publisher relations. She is the author ofHandbook for Academic Authors (Cambridge, 1987) and editor ofBook Research Quarterly.     

Publishing,copyright, and the public good

For centuries publishers have acted as intermediaries between author and audience. Copyright, like freedom of expression, is an essential element of freedom in this role, because without it authors' rights are not fully protected. Only when they are protected against theft and other economic or moral infringements are authors free to express themselves without fear. Publishers, too, rely on copyright to protect their investments and their freedom Paul Nijhoff Asser has been secretary of the International Group of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers (STM), Amsterdam, since 1970. He has been active in publishing and bookselling for more than forty years. This article was adapted from a presentation at the seminar “East Meets West: Copyright and the Publisher in a Market Economy”, Hamburg, March 1991.     

试论我国出版者权的法律保护

本文从分析出版者权的产生及涵义入手,结合我国《著作权法》的相关规定,对出版者权的法律保护问题进行了具体探讨.提出出版者除应享有《著作权法》所规定的相关权利外,还应享有出版专营权等五项权利,以期更好地保护出版者的合法权益.     

A View from Australia

Until 50 years ago the purpose of publishers in Australia was to act as distributors for overseas companies, mainly British. From 1970 onwards a local publishing industry began to develop, taking advantage of the greatly increased investment by publishers in distribution systems to service the “closed market.” In 1991 the “30-day rule” was introduced, leading to an increased amount of local printing of overseas titles, and a growing number of rights purchases of overseas-published books. The pros and cons of “separating out” Australian rights are addressed in this paper.     

Between Two Worlds: Australian Publishing on the Horns of an Import Dilemma

This article looks at the consequences of the 1991 amendment to the Australian Copyright Act, which meant that, for the copyright owner or authorised distributor to attain the right to control imports, it had to make the book available in Australia within 30 days of first publication overseas; and, to retain that right, it had to notify the retailer within 7 days of receiving an order whether it could be fulfilled within 90 days, and then in fact do so (. Accessed 28 June 2008). The article discusses the background to that change, what has happened since and what arguments are marshalled by those in favour of the status quo (restrictions that must be qualified for), and those in favour of a completely open market. The arguments used say much about the current preoccupations of those in Australian publishing. The debate around whether booksellers should be free to import copies of a new book from any supplier willing to sell them boils down to four issues: the availability in Australia of books published overseas; the price of books in Australia; the preservation of Australian publishing; and the protection of the rights of copyright holders. Those in favour of the open market believe that it would improve the first two without diminishing the latter two; those who support the status quo, that changing would bring no substantial benefits, and hurt both publishing and the rights of copyright holders. In summary, the reasons for maintaining the status quo are that things work fine as they are; that Australian literature (authors, bookshops, publishers) would suffer if things changed; and that the publisher is entitled to protect its investment through territorial control of copyright. The reasons for going to a completely open market are that only an open market can determine market price; that booksellers are unfairly disadvantaged competing against online sellers, on whom parallel importing restrictions are effectively not imposed; that copyright holders lose their rights when they sell something, and shouldn’t get a secondary chance to protect their investment; there is already a de facto open market, which unfairly restricts those who obey the law; there is a narrow window of opportunity for selling a book, which the current restrictions don’t serve; and the current situation is a poor compromise that doesn’t achieve the benefits of the open market.     

The author as star

The rise of the “star” author and the cult of celebrity overwhelms publishing in the same way that it has movies and professional sports. Television creates the star system, agents nurture it. Publishers must find ways of surviving it. The Internet provides a means for star authors to reach their public without the intermediation of their publisher, but it is not yet a medium in which stars are born. Address for correspondence     

The case for reader research

The author argues for a new attitude and praxis in consumer publishing that entails ongoing reader research. This change would reduce failure rates, increase profits, and better serve publishers’ cultural and economic objectives. Such studies would encompass both basic research and research on specific titles. John P. Dessauer founding editor ofBook Research Quarterly, has been a bookseller, publisher, and book club editor, official statistician for AAP, AAUP, ABA, and NACS; co-founder of BISG and editor ofBook Industry Trends from 1977 to 1988; contributing editor ofPublishers Weekly from 1971 to 1988; author ofBook Publishing: A Basic Introduction (Continuum, 1989)     

Universities and article copyright

The advent of electronic publishing raises many questions about the exercise of digital rights. We examine the problem of who owns the copyright of articles in the context of university attitudes to intellectual property generally and evolving practices in the publishing arena. We conclude that the balance between author and publisher is changing and that universities, as employers, could play a larger part in shifting the balance still further.     

Agreements between authors and publishers

The degree to which agreements between authors and publishers are left to free negotiation varies from country to country. As the European nations move toward economic unity, a greater degree of conformity in literary common law is desirable. Any common rules on publishing contracts should balance the interests of publishers and authors so that authors receive a fair share of all exploitations of their work and publishers are free to exploit the works in all possible ways. Exploitation includes both traditional means and new mass media and merchandising rights. professor of Intellectual Property and Copyright Law at both Berlin state universities, and author of commentaries on the German Copyright Code (7th ed., 1988), the German Unfair Competition law (6th ed., 1990), and the International Copyright Conventions (German ed., 1977; French ed., 1982; English ed., 1990). This article was adapted from a presentation at the seminar “East Meets West: Copyright and the Publisher in a Market Economy”, Hamburg, March 1991.     

The Franco-American book trade in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries

The Franco-American book trade played a vital role in the struggle for mutual understanding during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. That trade is exemplified by the work of three colorful individuals: Joseph Nancrede (1761–1841), who left his native France and became a publisher in Boston; John Hurford Stone (1763–1818), English supporter of the French Revolution who set up his English Press in Paris, issuing works of American interest; and Nicholas Gouin Dufief (1776–1834), who fled the French Revolution and set up as bookseller in Philadelphia. Thanks to the efforts of Nancrede and Dufief, the writings of French thinkers were made available to American readers, and thanks to the presswork of John Hurford Stone, the writings of Barlow, Paine, Jefferson and others were circulated in France. As publisher, printer, and bookseller, these three bookpeople reflected the ups and downs of Franco-American relations and became instruments of international understanding. Madeleine B. Stern, partner in the rare book firm of Leona Rostenberg and Madeleine Stern, has written numerous books on publishing and bookselling history, includingImprints on History: Book Publishers and American Frontiers. She is the editor ofPublishers for Mass Entertainment in 19th-Century America and is currently completingStudies in the Franco-American Book Trade in the Late 18th and Early 19th Centuries     

Territorial Rights and Wrongs

In this short article, Henry Rosenbloom, the founder of Australian independent publisher Scribe, complains about the tactic of UK-based publishers buying ‘Commonwealth’ rights and preventing Australian publishers from acquiring separate Australian rights. ‘UK publishers are not entitled to Australia as a territory. It is our country, our market, and our industry,’ he writes. This article was originally published in The Age newspaper in early 2008, then on Rosenbloom’s blog, and it was the catalyst for a spirited debate at this year’s London Book Fair.     

The impact of technology on publishing

Technology today more than ever has a disruptive impact on publishing. The Internet, printing-on-demand and the e-book are the main drivers of change, impacting all aspects of the publishing value chain—from the way books are published (authors can go direct to the reader), distributed (electronic marketplaces), sold (e-tailers) and read (electronic books). The author examines the context of the publishing industry in which these changes are occurring, describes the main drivers and impacts of these changes and illustrates them with an example from the information publishing industry. This paper is based on a presentation made during the conference ‘Blinded by the E-Light’ sponsored by Vista Computer Services (www.vistacomp.com) on June 15, 2000 in New York, NY.     

Current copyright enforcement

Unauthorized use of copyrighted materials is widespread and has been facilitated by technological advances. Copyright piracy has been reduced by the actions of the United States Trade Representative, the Association of American Publishers, and the International Intellectual Property Alliance. A number of successful antipiracy activities are reviewed, along with areas where problems continue. Fred Kobrak is a partner in Higham Kobrak Associates, consultants on the international publishing industry. He was formerly president of Collier Macmillan International, New York, the international arm of Macmillan Publishing Company. This article is adapted from a presentation to the seminar “East Meets West: Copyright and the Publisher in a Market Economy”, Hamburg, March 1991.     

“What is an author?” Contemporary publishing discourse and the author figure

Martin Amis’ novel The Information was published in paperback in May 1995. For a number of convergent reasons, the publication became, in itself, a major media event. In examining this occasion., the economic and cultural imperatives that shaped the marketing of The Information and the wider context of contemporary book publishing and its relation to other media, this paper problematises the relationship between cultural and economic value. It considers the discourse around what an author is “worth” in a late capitalist society of fiercely competitive consumer choice, and how the representation of an avowedly “literary” author is mobilised in the marketplace in ways that aim not to threaten to compromise the investment in the difference between literary and popular fiction.     

“I own it,don’t I?” The Rules of Academic Copyright Ownership and You

Abstract

This article delves into a few areas of copyright law that academic authors often overlook: joint author’s rights and the work made for hire doctrine. Scholarly publications produced by university professors often include more than one author. The default copyright laws apply to any such works if there is no specific written agreement to the contrary. Thus, it is important to understand what those default rules are in order to determine whether it is appropriate to deviate from them in an author agreement. Similarly, the work made for hire doctrine would normally apply to make all work produced by professors owned by the university. Luckily, many universities do not wish to own such work and give it back to professors through university statutes and other governing documents. However, it is crucial to understand whether the default rules apply or the university permits professors to negotiate their own author agreements with publishers. Finally, if authors own their own scholarly works, publishers can expect that they will negotiate their rights in the publishing agreements to benefit the terms most favorable to the author. And yet, many faculty members simply sign a standard authorship agreement without asking for concessions on the part of the publisher. Thus, this article empowers professors to exercise their copyright rights to the full extent of the law and to negotiate their author’s agreements to benefit themselves and society as a whole through open access and the use of Creative Commons licenses.     

The Royal Dutch Publishers Association

The structure of the Royal Dutch Publishers Association is described, and its activities are detailed. These include promoting reading, book-buying, and the interests of the publishing industry. The protection of copyright is a major part of these activities. He has been active in the book trade for more than thirty years: in bookselling, the import business, and publishing in the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Germany, and Switzerland. This article was adapted from a presentation at the seminar “East Meets West: Copyright and the Publisher in a Market Economy”, Hamburg, March 1991.     

The Rise of Global Publishing and the Fall of the Dream of the Global Book: The Editing of Peter Carey

The article documents the editorial relationship between Peter Carey and his New York based editor for Knopf, Gary Fisketjon, who worked with Carey on his True History of the Kelly Gang. This account provides the basis for a discussion of how globalised publishing, while promising unity—a single text across all territories—has instead introduced a tension into the previously cohesive triad of author, editor, and the single authorized text. As Fisketjon’s experience lays bare, major contemporary texts that are published in multiple editions in different global centers may well proceed through competing or at least parallel editing processes with different presses, different editors, and in different publishing territories. The authorized single edition, even of major literary texts, has been replaced by competing editions. The single edit and editor have been replaced by competing “servant[s] of the writer” (to use Fisketjon’s phrase). Cohesion, while not quite giving way to disunity, gives way to multiplicity and plurality. The experience of the Kelly Gang book is cast against a longer narrative of Carey’s interactions with editors including the University of Queensland Press (UQP) from the 1970s and Faber from the 1980s.     

Electronic Copyright Rights: Do You Have What You Need?

Publishing agreements have long operated with certain assumptions about what books are and what publishers do. These assumptions are increasingly at odds with the new technological forms in which books are created and marketed, from e-books and Kindle 2 read-aloud works to so-called “vooks” that incorporate on-demand streaming video and other internet-based features in conjunction with hard copy books. Publishers’ contracts need to be re-thought in light of these changed circumstances. Specifically, publishing contracts today should focus on the activities in which the publisher may engage, and not the form in which the work may be presented, a point that was made clear several years ago in the Random House v. RosettaBooks litigation. In defining these activities, contracts should track the language of the exclusive rights enumerated in §106 of the Copyright Act. Finally, to the extent that books are becoming “audiovisual works” publishers may be able to shift to a work-made-for-hire model for obtaining ownership, rather than relying on grants from individual authors.     

Selling Translation Rights to an American Publisher

American publishers publish few books in translation, so making a deal for American publishing rights is reason for congratulations, however, American publishing contracts are complex documents and variations in house policies on important issues make them seem even more complex. The article includes a chart that may be useful for navigating a typical contract an American publisher will issue to a foreign proprietor from whom it is buying translation rights.