http://blogs.lib.berkeley.edu/shimenawa.php?disp=comments en-US http://backend.userland.com/rss 60 Mon, 04 Jun 2007 11:12:29 +0000 Brian Guerin [Visitor] c412@http://blogs.lib.berkeley.edu/ I agree that the aggregation of data (and ease of access to it) is where the perceived value is going to be for the consumer. Whether this fact will influence how contracts are drawn up is another question entirely. I think this is too much of a leap for agents to make on behalf of authors. I I imagine that authors could receive slightly higher royalty rates as a result of the higher profitability of ebook sales, but any more explicit acknowledgement of the strength of the publishers online backlist is unlikely. <br /> Publishers will be seeing this long tail of online text distribution as an opportunity to<br /> to boost their unenviable profit margins, and will fight tooth and nail to prevent it becoming more expensive for them to deliver. Publishers will be seeing this long tail of online text distribution as an opportunity to
to boost their unenviable profit margins, and will fight tooth and nail to prevent it becoming more expensive for them to deliver.]]> http://blogs.lib.berkeley.edu/shimenawa.php/2007/05/10/re_contracting_author_rights#c412 Sat, 19 May 2007 23:08:19 +0000 Fred von Lohmann [Visitor] c386@http://blogs.lib.berkeley.edu/ Not sure I agree. It seems to me that "aggregation" isn't where the value is, at least not if you mean "having a collection of stuff." Instead, value appears to be split between access (reading the books, whereever they may be stored and irrespective of proximity to other works) and discoverability (search, metadata, linking, recommendations). <br /> <br /> As to access, copyright law likely reserves most of that value to the copyright owner in most digital contexts. If you want to read the book online (offline, in contrast, the first sale doctrine strongly limits an author's ability to control access), odds are good copyright will have something to say about it. <br /> <br /> As to discoverability, however, I'd say copyright law reserves most of that value to the public. I'm on Google's side in the Google Library Project fight, and on the side of all the bloggers who talk about and point to books. I don't think any of them should have to compensate or get permission from authors for pointing to, indexing, describing, or talking about a book. True, there will be huge new value generated here, but copyright law has never embraced the "if value, then right" notion.
As to access, copyright law likely reserves most of that value to the copyright owner in most digital contexts. If you want to read the book online (offline, in contrast, the first sale doctrine strongly limits an author's ability to control access), odds are good copyright will have something to say about it.

As to discoverability, however, I'd say copyright law reserves most of that value to the public. I'm on Google's side in the Google Library Project fight, and on the side of all the bloggers who talk about and point to books. I don't think any of them should have to compensate or get permission from authors for pointing to, indexing, describing, or talking about a book. True, there will be huge new value generated here, but copyright law has never embraced the "if value, then right" notion. ]]> http://blogs.lib.berkeley.edu/shimenawa.php/2007/05/10/re_contracting_author_rights#c386