From the Book Standard:
The Authors Guild, the largest organization of authors in the United States, is upset over changes made to Simon and Schuster’s author contracts, saying the publisher is trying to retain control of books even after they have gone out of print. In a standard author contract, once a book has gone out [...]
Archive of entries posted on May 2007
Authors Guild Angry Over Changes to Simon and Schuster’s Author Contracts
In Fiji – $3.0m for new national archive
2 articles in 2 weeks about Fiji? I must be over due for a vacation.
From the Fiji Times:
About $3.8million will be used to build a new complex and renovate the old National Archives.
Government archivist Setareki Tale said construction of the new complex, which started in 2005, would be completed by the end of the [...]
Global online censorship rising fast
From Information World Review:
Web censorship by governments for political, social or ‘national security’ reasons is increasing, according to a global survey by the OpenNet Initiative.
John Palfrey, executive director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, and clinical professor of law at Harvard Law School, believes the survey shows that online censorship is growing around [...]
Two examples of citizen volunteers improving access to government information
From Daily Kos comes the DOJ Email Database related to the U.S. Attorney firing scandal
To my knowledge, this is the first and largest collective effort by volunteers to assimilate open source data and convert it into a public, referenced, research tool. . .
. . . This database includes all of the 2086 unique emails included [...]
Center for Constitutional Rights files FOIA lawsuit for records of warrantless wiretapping program
From the Center for Constitutional Rights:
Wilner v. NSA is a FOIA lawsuit filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights on behalf of 16 attorneys who represent men detained at Guantanamo Bay. The lawsuit seeks records of any NSA surveillance of the plaintiffs under the warrantless wiretapping program initiated after 9/11.
The lawsuit was filed on May [...]
Backers of stronger copyright laws form lobby group
From News.com:
Some of the staunchest advocates for stricter copyright laws have formed a new alliance designed to pressure Congress into preserving stronger intellectual property rights.
The Copyright Alliance–which launched, complete with electric-green and white T-shirts displaying its logo at a morning Capitol Hill event here– consists of 29 national organizations and companies that purport to represent [...]
Court rules Google search small images are ‘fair use’
From the Mercury News:
A federal appeals court Wednesday said Google does not infringe the copyrights of adult entertainment company Perfect 10 by displaying small versions of its images in search results.
But the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said a lower court should reconsider whether Google helps violate copyrights by pointing people to sites that [...]
Support of the FY 2008 Appropriations Request of the U.S. Government Printing Office
Like every other federal agency, the Government Printing Office has been operating under a continuing resolution which has held it to FY 2006 funding, and here we are just 5 months from FY 2008.
On May 1, 2007, Mary Alice Baish of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) testified in support of full funding for [...]
Israeli authorities to demolish a Palestinian library in Jerusalem
From Ma’an News:
The Israeli authorities have handed a warrant to the owner of the Al-Ansari Library on Saint George street, in Jerusalem, asking him to evacuate the building because it is to be demolished for the enlargement of the street and the construction of a train station.
The library comprises 45,000 books, which have been [...]
Preserving our digital heritage
From the San Diego Union-Tribune:
The challenges underlying digital preservation led Congress in 2000 to appropriate $100 million for the Library of Congress to lead the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program, or NDIIPP, a growing partnership of 67 organizations charged with preserving and making accessible “born digital” information for current and future generations.
Some of [...]