Copyright is a hotly contested issue facing both authors and the publishing industry, as rights holders work to strike a balance between safeguarding content and sharing it across a variety of platforms to reach as many readers as possible. In the era of digital publishing, ebook piracy, and open sharing authoring platforms, some industry response has been to tighten the reins … [Read more...] about Wattpad Announces Creative Commons Agreement
Creative Commons
Groups Advocate for Fair-Use Access to Orphaned Works
Two organizations, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and non-profit policy advocates Public Knowledge, have submitted their recommendations to the US Copyright Office to establish fair use guidelines for so-called orphan works, or any work whose rights holders cannot be identified through extensive means. Orphan works are those whose rights holders cannot be located, … [Read more...] about Groups Advocate for Fair-Use Access to Orphaned Works
Authors Guild, Authors Alliance Battle Over Speaking for Writers
A new dramatic battle is brewing in the publishing industry, this time over competing organizations that both claim to advocate and speak for authors but who have vastly different goals and ideals. The long-standing Authors Guild, often scoffed as a proud member of the gatekeepers club and a rather irrelevant entity that has yet to embrace the current publishing climate, … [Read more...] about Authors Guild, Authors Alliance Battle Over Speaking for Writers
Unglue.it Goes Live with Its First Crowdfunded eBook
A revolutionary concept in fostering free use of books launched only a few years ago with GlueJar's Unglue.it model. This model relied on crowdfunding to propel a book into Creative Commons status, essentially paying the rights holder an agreed upon amount in order to "unglue" the book. Now, Unglue.it has announced the first ebook created under its new funding mechanism. … [Read more...] about Unglue.it Goes Live with Its First Crowdfunded eBook
Inkling Unveils Seamless Cloud-Based Habitat Platform – Updated
"Books aren't just text and images anymore," claims Inkling's introduction to its new Habitat platform, a cloud-based concept that allows an entire team of creators working from anywhere to see how their content comes together for publication on multiple devices. "There's never been a more exciting time to be in publishing." While any number of digital publishers are … [Read more...] about Inkling Unveils Seamless Cloud-Based Habitat Platform – Updated
Unglue.it Unleashes Two New Crowd-Sourced Titles
One of the more innovative concepts that has grown out of digital publishing is the concept of crowd-sourced "ungluing," a way to allow reader fans to remove the copyright status of books by pledging funding to buy the rights from the author under Creative Commons status of copyright law. Once a book has become "unglued," it can be read by anyone on any device for free while … [Read more...] about Unglue.it Unleashes Two New Crowd-Sourced Titles
California Gov Signs Landmark Digital Textbook Bill
In a move that some feel is another blow to the big business of traditional publishing, California Governor Jerry Brown signed legislation that will give the California college systems the push they need to not only find open source textbooks for their students’ classes, but will also enable the colleges and universities to develop these materials themselves in order to make … [Read more...] about California Gov Signs Landmark Digital Textbook Bill
First Successful Unglue It Campaign
When GoodEReader interviewed Unglue.it president Eric Hellman about the concept behind ungluing books to make them readily available without limitation, the idea may have been equal parts intriguing and skeptical. Would readers really pledge money in order to strip a book of its DRM and copyright in order to thrust it into the public domain and make it available anywhere for … [Read more...] about First Successful Unglue It Campaign