Writers and publishers are continuously facing a changing landscape. The Writers' Union of Canada has developed 12 core demands for the digital age. Interesting list for authors in negotiations with their publishers.
- Copyright legislation shall ensure the protection of intellectual property and appropriate compensation for rightsholders.
- Exceptions to copyright shall be minimized.
- The publisher shall split the net proceeds of ebook sales equally with the author.
- The author shall retain all e-rights not specifically granted to the publisher or producer and shall have the approval of any modifications made to the work.
- The publisher shall not exercise or sublicense ebook publishing rights without the express authorization of the author.
- When a book is out of print in print form, continuing sales in e-form shall not prevent a rights reversion to the author.
- For ebooks, the publisher in its contract shall replace the traditional "out of print" clause that triggers a rights reversion with a sales volume clause and/or a finite term of license.
- When rights revert, the publisher shall provide the author with the digital file of the book.
- The Public Lending Right Commission shall provide author payments for e-books and allot additional monies to this end.
- Libraries shall acquire digital copies of works in their collections only from rightsholders or their licensing agencies.
- Ebook retailers shall require the rightsholder's permission for any free preview or download of an ework, and the rightsholder shall specify the maximum amount to be made available.
- Agents, publishers, aggregators, retailers, and libraries shall ensure that works in digital form will be well protected and will not be shared, trade, or sold outside the boundaries authorized by the contract.
Respond: make a comment | read the 4 comments
Share:
Email
|
Save as PDF | Print
|
Bookmark & Share
|
|
More: in Legal Information or Substantive Law | from Lesley Ellen Harris
Make a comment:
Note that some comments may be moderated. If you have not had an approved comment here before, your comment will be held for approval. We are glad to publish comments that address issues raised in the post or other comments on it and that contribute to a fruitful discussion. We do not publish comments that seek to promote commercial products, that make personal attacks, or that seek personal legal advice.
Although we do not require it, we ask that in making a comment you use your full name. You must supply a valid email address, which will not appear with your comment.
|
the count:
8281 posts | 11497 comments
recent comments  
As Richard Ferguson, a lawyer friend of ours says on his email message: “People may forget what you said…. People may forget what you did…. but people will never forget … »»Practice There are two possible approaches to personal current awareness: Develop excellent searching skills so that you can find what you need when you need it Pick a fairly narrow specialty … »»Research “It is better to have a permanent income than to be fascinating” was said once by Oscar Wilde. The final tip in this series is the capstone issue in our … »»Practice
-
Available online today are four new chapters of the publication Women in Canada: A Gender-based Statistical Report, which explores the socio-demographic and economic circumstances of Canadian women in general.
-
The bill amends the Constitution Act, 1867 by readjusting the number of members and the representation of the provinces in the House of Commons.
-
-
Blueseed plans to buy a ship and turn it into a floating incubator anchored in international waters off the coast of California.
-
Under Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the flow of information out of Ottawa has slowed to a trickle.
-
-
"…the IPC has exclusive jurisdiction to decide whether a record is in the custody or control of a university in the context of an access request…"
-
-
John J.L. Hunter, Q.C. of Vancouver has been elected President for 2011-2012
-
Detailed results from 321 members.
These summaries of selected recent cases are provided each week to Slaw by Maritime Law Book.
More information.
-
Limitation of Actions - Actions in contract - Actions for debt - General
Moody died on December 3, 2005, leaving four adult children. Pursuant to Moody’s will two of her children, James and Tyrell, were appointed executors of the estate. It was alleged that, during her ...
-
Barristers and Solicitors - Discipline - Suspension - For professional misconduct
McLean pled guilty five counts of conduct unbecoming a lawyer. The Discipline Committee suspended him from practice for four months and placed him on indefinite supervision. McLean appealed the length of the penalty.
The Saskatchewan ...
-
Mines and Minerals - Operation of mines, quarries and wells - Licences and permits - Appeals or judicial review - Standing - Costs
Grizzly Resources Ltd. (Grizzly). made an applications to the Energy Resources Conservation Board to drill two sour gas wells on the same site. ...
-
Narcotic Control - Offences - Trafficking - Elements of
The accused was charged with trafficking in cocaine. The trial judge granted the accused’s motion to discharge the charge. The Crown appealed.
The Saskatchewan Court of Appeal allowed the appeal and ordered a new trial.
Link ...
This is a listing of a few upcoming events in Canada of interest to lawyers, law students, legal librarians, and others involved in the practice of law.
Clicking on any event in the list below will give you access to more information and to links allowing you to see the full entry and to add the event to your own calendar.
Click this link for a fuller version of the TalkLaw/ParLoi calendar of events and for instructions as to how to add events and calendars to your own calendar.
|
"Libraries shall acquire digital copies of works in their collections only from rightsholders or their licensing agencies" but not from "Agents, publishers, aggregators, retailers, and libraries"
I wonder if they really mean to limit libraries in particular, are are simply sloppy in their drafting…
–dave ("Using Samba" 1st. & 2nd. ed.) c-b
Those are some pretty lofty demands. "Exceptions to copyright shall be minimized"? "The rightsholder shall specify the maximum amount to be made available"? Are they referring merely to publishing contracts or do they really believe that user rights such as fair dealing are somehow under their control?
I suspect this is a wish-list, for purposes of negotiating more rights for publishers from the government, which is reintroducing last year's copyright bill.
–dave
The first items are so broad as to be meaningless, certainly not the slightest help in deciding on the issues presented in Bill C-32, like the availability of methods to break technical protection measures to make legal use of copyrighted materials.
It's not an impressive list- one imagines its being created at the end of a long, boozy, frustrated meeting. How would a publisher or legislator even begin to negotiate when presented with such a list? (There may be a few specific-enough items, but only a few.)
Presumably the public lending right item is a way of saying 'taxpayers, provide more money to pay us for lending e-books'. Why would they be counted separately from any book in any medium.