Librarians Launch National Campaign to Oppose Macmillan’s Library E-book Embargo

September 12, 2019By rightstech

Librarians are making a direct plea to Macmillan CEO John Sargent: please listen to your readers and abandon plans to embargo new release e-books in libraries. That was the appeal delivered at an American Library Association press conference on September 11, held at the Nashville Public Library, coinciding with this week’s Digital Book World Conference.

Source: Librarians Launch National Campaign to Oppose Macmillan’s Library E-book Embargo

RightsTech Extra

AI Companies Get the Picture

By Paul Sweeting

One of the biggest challenges facing copyright owners in grappling with the rapid development of generative AI technology, apart from a murky legal status, has been market failure, as discussed here in previous posts. The amount of existing material needed to train gen-AI models is so great, and so varied, that gauging the value of any one piece of it to establish a market price for it for licensing purposes is often effectively impossible. One group of rights owners is finding willing buyers among AI companies, however. An active, albeit for various reasons mostly sotto voce market has begun to emerge for the use of images held in large photo archives and by photo agencies and social media platforms, complete with per-unit industry and at least a nod toward creator attribution... Read More >>

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