You are here: Fairness.com > Resources > Media & Journalism > Media Industry Issues > Publishing Industry: Books

Publishing Industry: Books

Articles and Resources

76 Articles and Resources. Go to: [Next 26]

Date	Fairness.com Resource	Read it at:
Apr 07, 2013	The Slow Death of the American Author QUOTE: The value of copyrights is being quickly depreciated, a crisis that hits hardest not best-selling authors like me, who have benefited from most of the recent changes in bookselling, but new and so-called midlist writers....Many people would say such changes are simply in the nature of markets, and see no problem if authors are left to write purely for the love of the game. But what sort of society would that be?	New York Times
Aug 26, 2012	The Best Book Reviews Money Can Buy QUOTE: "The wheels of online commerce run on positive reviews," said Bing Liu, a data-mining expert at the University of Illinois, Chicago, whose 2008 research showed that 60 percent of the millions of product reviews on Amazon are five stars and an additional 20 percent are four stars. "But almost no one wants to write five-star reviews, so many of them have to be created."	New York Times
Aug 04, 2012	Against Enthusiasm: The epidemic of niceness in online book culture. QUOTE: The problem with Liking is that it’s a critical dead-end, a conversation nonstarter. It’s opinion without evidence—or, really, posture without opinion....A better literary culture would be one that's not so dependent on personal esteem and mutual reinforcement. It would not treat offense or disagreement as toxic.	Slate
Jun 01, 2012	Publishing’s Virtue: On the whole, book publishers are a decent lot. QUOTE: without quality, price, convenience, or the threat of punishment, how can publishers convince people to do the right thing and buy? Basically, with an appeal to decency: you should buy our goods because it’s the right thing to do....Even publishers owned by giant corporations deal with their writers on industry-standard terms that really do see to it that the money a customer hands over for a product finds its way into the creator’s bank account.	Publishers Weekly
Mar 11, 2012	How Cheap Should Books Be? QUOTE: A looming lawsuit could solidify Amazon's dominance in the book business. That might be good for readers' wallets, but it also might be bad for readers in the long term. Here 's why.	Atlantic Online, The (Atlantic Monthly)
Jan 20, 2012	iBooks Author: You Work For Apple Now QUOTE: Up until now, Apple has kept creative tools divorced from the means of distribution. You can choose how to sell the things you made with iWork, iWeb, Xcode, TextEdit, or any app the company has ever written, free or not. Apple has always made a distinction between enabling the creative process and selling the product of that process. Apple's iBooks Author erases that distinction.	PC Magazine
Jul 15, 2011	A Tip Becomes a Twitter Torrent QUOTE: What appears to have happened is this: ESPN benched [Feldman] earlier this week, with pay, as it assessed the damage from excerpts from “Swing Your Sword,” the newly published book that Feldman collaborated on with Mike Leach, the ex-Texas Tech football coach.	New York Times
Mar 22, 2011	Judge Rejects Google’s Deal to Digitize Books QUOTE: But citing copyright, antitrust and other concerns, Judge Denny Chin said that the settlement went too far. He said it would have granted Google a “de facto monopoly” and the right to profit from books without the permission of copyright owner... They also said no other company would be able to build a comparable library, leaving Google free to charge high prices for its collection.	New York Times
Jan 15, 2011	Can Your Camera Phone Turn You Into a Pirate? QUOTE: As the technology in cellphones advances, higher-resolution cameras, image-enhancing software and high-clarity screens make it delightfully easy to capture a photograph and view it later. There may not be Web sites devoted to purloined pictures — there are such sites for music or videos — but many people have a cavalier attitude toward using cameras to obtain copyrighted material.	New York Times
Dec 20, 2010	Man who wrote 'how-to' for pedophiles arrested QUOTE: Judd said he was frustrated that Greaves' book was protected under freedom of speech laws, even though it was created "specifically to teach people how to sexually molest and rape children."	CNN (Cable News Network)
Jul 04, 2010	Adrian Johns's "Piracy: The Intellectual Property Wars From Gutenberg to Gates" QUOTE: In his invaluable book "Piracy," Adrian Jones argues that the tendency of intellectual property battles to undermine privacy is not new. On the contrary, Johns, a history professor at the University of Chicago, argues that ever since the medieval and Enlightenment eras, corporations have tried to defend their economic interests by searching for intellectual piracy in the private sphere of people's homes.	Washington Post
May 21, 2010	Texas school board hears from critics of social studies changes QUOTE: ...McLeroy has argued that the revisions provide balance to a set of standards that did not initially paint America in a positive light. Both liberals and conservatives on the board have called the changes "political" -- but they have disagreed on whether that was a bad thing.	Washington Post
May 11, 2010	Amazon Spying On Your Ebook Highlighting QUOTE: ...Amazon will now remotely upload and store the user notes and highlights you take on your Kindle, which it then compiles into "popular highlights."	Techdirt
Apr 25, 2010	Random House Cedes Some Digital Rights to Styron Heirs QUOTE: After publicly staking a claim to the right to publish electronic versions of books that already have a long history in print, Random House appears to be letting go of digital rights to several works by one prominent author without a fight, potentially opening the way for other authors to take their e-books away from traditional publishers.	New York Times
Apr 08, 2010	Copyright and wrong: Why the rules on copyright need to return to their roots QUOTE: The notion that lengthening copyright increases creativity is questionable, however. Authors and artists do not generally consult the statute books before deciding whether or not to pick up pen or paintbrush.	Economist
Apr 02, 2010	The End of History (Books) QUOTE: In order for electronic books to live up to their billing, we have to fix a system that is broken: getting permission to use copyrighted material in new work. Either we change the way we deal with copyrights — or works of nonfiction in a multimedia world will become ever more dull and disappointing.	New York Times
Sep 04, 2009	Privacy Group Asks to Join Google Book Lawsuit As Deadline Approaches (Epicenter) QUOTE: A key privacy group is seeking to intervene in the ongoing copyright lawsuit over Google’s plan to build the library and bookstore of the future, arguing that reader privacy is at risk no matter how much Google promises to have a good privacy policy.	Wired
Aug 22, 2009	Ridge's Telling Tale, or Just Another Tell-All? QUOTE: There is something about the Beltway culture that seems to discourage protest resignations. Instead, the well-worn path is to collect your grievances, find a publisher, hit the talk-show circuit and recast yourself as a painfully honest critic of the administration you once saluted.	Washington Post
Aug 12, 2009	Yale Press Bans Images of Muhammad in New Book QUOTE: ...Yale University and Yale University Press consulted two dozen authorities, including diplomats and experts on Islam and counterterrorism, and the recommendation was unanimous: The book, “The Cartoons That Shook the World,” should not include the 12 Danish drawings [depicting Muhammad] that originally appeared in September 2005. What’s more, they suggested that the Yale press also refrain from publishing any other illustrations of the prophet that were to be included...	New York Times
Aug 04, 2009	New petition demands an end to Kindle DRM, faces long odds QUOTE: It was that decision [by Amazon] to link the Kindle hardware and store with a new DRM scheme that led the Free Software Foundation (FSF) to add the Kindle to its "Defective by Design" anti-DRM campaign.	Ars Technica
Jun 22, 2009	Is Amazon Taking Over the Book Business? QUOTE: The Amazonians [amazon.com] are really good at selling books online... But because Amazon is so much better than anybody else at selling books online... it has a lot of power at the negotiating table. All retailers get discounts from their wholesalers, but some publishers think the discounts Amazon asks for are getting too deep. "They're fast approaching the point where we just can't afford to do business with them," says a well-known New York book editor...	Time Magazine
Feb 12, 2009	The New Book Banning: Children’s books burn, courtesy of the federal government QUOTE: the federal government has now advised that children’s books published before 1985 should not be considered safe and may in many cases be unlawful to sell or distribute.	City Journal
Dec 28, 2008	Bargain Hunting for Books, and Feeling Sheepish About It QUOTE: a worldwide network of amateurs who sell books from their homes....One consequence has been to change the calculations involved in buying a book. Given the price, do I really want to read this? Now it’s become both an economic and a moral issue? How much do I want to pay, and where do I want that money to go? To my local community via a bookstore? To the publisher? To the author?	New York Times
Jul 01, 2008	Textbook Piracy Grows Online, Prompting a Counterattack From Publishers QUOTE: In response to such sites, the Association of American Publishers hired an outside law firm this summer to scour the Web for illegally offered textbooks. Already the firm has identified thousands of instances of book piracy and has sent legal notices to Web sites hosting the files demanding that they be removed. The group is looking for all types of books, though trade books and textbooks, which generally have high price tags, are the most frequent books offered on peer-to-peer sites.	Chronicle of Higher Education
Jun 16, 2008	The Associated Press to Set Guidelines for Using Its Articles in Blogs QUOTE: The Associated Press, one of the nation’s largest news organizations, said that it will, for the first time, attempt to define clear standards as to how much of its articles and broadcasts bloggers and Web sites can excerpt without infringing on The A.P.’s copyright.	New York Times
Jun 16, 2008	Small Publishers Feel Power of Amazon’s ‘Buy’ Button QUOTE: Amazon, the online retailing giant with a fast-rising share of the consumer book market, has adopted the literary equivalent of a nuclear option for rebellious publishers who balk at its demands.	New York Times
May 13, 2008	When Literary and Prosecutorial License Collide QUOTE: Prosecutors who draw on their professional experiences to write novels and assist screenwriters can breathe a little easier after a pair of rulings issued on Monday by the California Supreme Court. One decision reversed an appeals court ruling disqualifying a prosecutor who had provided filmmakers with his files in a pending case. The other reversed a similar ruling against a prosecutor who had written a novel whose plot bore similarities to a second pending case.	New York Times
Apr 16, 2008	Publishers Sue Georgia State on Digital Reading Matter QUOTE: The lawsuit, which may be the first of its kind, raises questions about digital rights, which are confronting many media companies, but also about core issues like the future of the business model for academic publishers.	New York Times
Apr 08, 2008	Media giants start whisper campaign to kill Fair Use QUOTE: The big media companies are trying to convince the world's governments that the USA's statutory exceptions to copyright (embodied in Fair Use) are so broad that they violate the centuries-old Berne Convention, a widely adopted copyright treaty.	Boing Boing
Apr 04, 2008	New HarperCollins Unit to Try to Cut Writer Advances QUOTE: HarperCollins Publishers is forming a new publishing group that will substitute profit-sharing with authors for cash advances and will try to eliminate the costly practice of allowing booksellers to return unsold copies.	New York Times
Mar 31, 2008	Amazon changes rules for print-on-demand publishers: Online retailer requires POD publishers to use its BookSurge printing service QUOTE: Amazon.com Inc. has told publishers who print books on demand that their titles will no longer be sold directly through Amazon if they don't use the company's printing company, BookSurge.	Computerworld
Mar 05, 2008	True or False: Book Publishers Can Avoid the Agony of Deceit QUOTE: The humble art of fact checking means precisely what its name implies. At the better grade of magazine, poorly remunerated employees are charged with the task of ascertaining that the articles the magazine plans to publish are true. It's a tough job, but in book publishing, no one has to do it.	Washington Post
Feb 28, 2008	Burma's allure places travelers in ethical dilemma: Activists say tourist dollars support the military junta, but many Burmese say they need the income. QUOTE: But for those willing to overlook all this to experience Burma's charm, coming here also presents an ethical dilemma: Do you heed human rights activists' pleas to stay away to keep tourist dollars from a military junta's coffers or listen to some Burmese who say that income is a vital source for the country's impoverished.	Christian Science Monitor
Feb 09, 2008	A Tight Grip Can Choke Creativity QUOTE: [Rowling] is essentially claiming that....no one else can use [her characters] without her permission....copyright holders have tried to impose rules on the rest of us — through threats and litigation — that were never intended to be part of copyright law...	New York Times
Dec 04, 2007	Critical Condition QUOTE: Faint Praise begins. "They have been frustrating people ever since.... For two centuries reviews have been lambasted by critics, often reviewers themselves, who have complained that reviews are profligate in their praise, hostile in their criticism, cravenly noncommittal, biased, inaccurate, illiterate, or dull. Generally, the argument runs, American reviewing has never been worse." Pool cites a well-known essay by Elizabeth Hardwick published in Harper's in 1959 titled "The Decline of Book Reviewing," which read like a requiem then; and yet here we are, almost a half-century later, still crabbing and singing the same old blues.	New Republic, The (TNR)
Nov 11, 2007	Faking It QUOTE: It seems hard to believe that a book called “How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read” would hit the best-seller lists in France, where books are still regarded as sacred objects....emphasizes the reader’s role in creating meaning. He wants to show us how much we lie about the way we read, to ourselves as well as to others, and to assuage our guilt about the way we actually read and talk about books.	New York Times
Oct 17, 2007	The Real Carver: Expansive or Minimal? QUOTE: Amanda Urban, the agent for Carver’s literary estate, said she had previously spoken with Knopf about publishing the restored stories. Knopf declined and wrote Ms. Urban and Ms. Gallagher, telling them that if they tried to publish with another house, Knopf would consider it an illegal, competitive edition.	New York Times
Jul 30, 2007	Oprah vs. James Frey: The Sequel QUOTE: Musing on what truth is within the context of a memoir, Oates seemed to be questioning how Winfrey could pass judgment on the literary worth of an individual's own truth. But in the Texas heartland, where many consider truth a constant and not a variable, not everyone agreed.	Time Magazine
May 29, 2007	Can What You're Reading Prove Intent to Commit a Crime? QUOTE: Providing an example of the line that the majority was seeking to draw, Trott's majority opinion states: "[A] book such as The Great Train Robbery would not necessarily be relevant and admissible in a run-of-the-mill theft case. On the other hand, if the crime charged happened to be theft of a money shipment from a train, then possession of the book might possibly be relevant -- depending upon the precise facts and circumstances of the case."	Law.com
Jan 17, 2007	Web Sites Challenge the Textbook Goliaths: The biggest, Chegg.com, has scored $2.2 million in funding. The idea: sell cheaper books to students, bypass the textbook monopolies—and make money QUOTE: How often does someone have the authority to order consumers to purchase a product with a limited number of vendors? University professors have just that power...	BusinessWeek
Jan 08, 2007	Ex-President for Sale QUOTE: Carter is saying that no objective journalist or politician could actually believe that America’s support for Israel is based on moral and strategic considerations and not on their own financial self-interest....It now turns out that the shoe is precisely on the other foot. Recent disclosures prove that it is Carter who has been bought and paid for by anti-Israel Arab and Islamic money.	Gather.com
Jan 03, 2007	Should I Lie to Help the Company?: Writing book reviews under false names for Web sites is wrong—even if the boss asks you to do it because it could help juice sales QUOTE: Writing a false review, which here means writing under a fake name or claiming to like a book that you don't—or both—is wrong, plain and simple .... It isn't right to lie just because it may be legal to do so.	BusinessWeek
Jun 22, 2006	FCC to Revisit Media-Ownership Rules: Commissioners Face Changed Landscape QUOTE: ...the FCC said it will attempt to set rules governing the number of radio and television stations that companies can own in one city, cross-ownership between newspapers and television and television and radio, whether one company may own more than one television network and whether UHF stations should count toward total national station ownership.	Washington Post
May 14, 2006	Scan This Book! QUOTE: Some authors and many publishers found more evil than genius in Google's plan. Two points outraged them: the virtual copy of the book that sat on Google's indexing server and Google's assumption that it could scan first and ask questions later. On both counts the authors and publishers accused Google of blatant copyright infringement.	New York Times
May 02, 2006	A Second Ripple in Plagiarism Scandal QUOTE: Fresh passages in the novel by a Harvard sophomore, whose book was pulled from stores last week after she acknowledged plagiarizing portions of it, appear to be copied from a second author.	New York Times
Feb 02, 2006	The Lawsuits over James Frey's "A Million Little Pieces": Although the Author Has Conceded Fabrication, The Suits Should be Dismissed QUOTE: ...James Frey's best-selling memoir, A Million Little Pieces, contains inaccuracies and fabricated events....Some readers have now decided to sue the book's publisher, Random House and the relevant subdivision, Doubleday, in three separate class action lawsuits, in Los Angeles, Illinois, and Seattle. Each suit alleges breach of contract, and negligent misrepresentation as well as consumer fraud...	Findlaw
Dec 20, 2005	Google Lyrics Search—Déjà Vu? QUOTE: At what point has the music industry's fierce guarding of it's content gone too far? And how far does Fair Use protect Google as it seeks to index the world's information? The biggest blow-out of the year was between Google and publishers over the Google Book Search project. The next big blow-out may land Google in the sights of the music industry after the search company launched a music lyrics search function.	WebProNews
Nov 12, 2005	Keep the Internet Free QUOTE: ...U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan wrote that a U.N. role in Internet governance would be benign and would concentrate on expanding the Internet into the developing world. But while Annan's intentions are no doubt well-meaning, the same cannot be said for the coalition of U.N member states making the loudest noise for change. Among them are regimes that have taken measures to control their citizens' access to the Internet...	Washington Post
Oct 21, 2005	U.N. Body Endorses Cultural Protection: U.S. Objections Are Turned Aside QUOTE: The measure passed at a time of growing fear in many countries that the world's increasing economic interdependence, known as globalization, is bringing a surge of foreign products across their borders that could wipe out local cultural heritage.	Washington Post
Sep 26, 2005	Copyright lawsuit challenges Google's vision of digital 'library': Authors and publishers balk at the firm's ambitious plan to digitize world's information, saying it needs their permission. QUOTE: ...a lawsuit filed in federal court in New York last week against Google and its Google Print Project... Brought by the 8,000- member Authors Guild, the suit seeks damages and an injunction to halt Google's project, claiming it violates copyright because authors have not first given permission to use their works.	Christian Science Monitor

Publishing Industry: Books

Articles and Resources

Services

Subject Categories

Geographic Categories

About Fairness.com

Volunteer Opportunities

Log In

Email:
Password:
Remember this login (help)