Publishing – Page 2 – RightsTech Project

Hooper to step down as chairman of Copyright Hub Foundation

April 25, 2016By rightstech

Richard Hooper is to stand down as chairman of the Copyright Hub Foundation at the beginning of May.

After nearly five years in the job, Hooper will hand over the role to Mark Bide who is currently an adviser to the Foundation’s Board.

The move will mark the transition of the Copyright Hub Foundation to the next phase of its development, in which its principal focus will be on building trust in the market place and effective self-regulation; as well as continuing to facilitate the roll-out of applications and sister hubs. Bide has previously led the governance work strand on behalf of the Foundation’s board.

Source: The Bookseller

David Lowery Legal Team Files Motion Addressing Spotify’s Forthcoming Publishing Settlement

April 20, 2016By admin

Attorneys representing David Lowery in his lawsuit against Spotify want to know what the music streaming service has been telling songwriters. In a motion filed this week in the Central District Court of California, Lowery and the other three plaintiffs have asked the judge for “corrective action to prevent misrepresentations to putative class members” in pitches to songwriters by Spotify and the National Music Publishers’ Association related to their settlement agreement.’

The new filing comes down to the plaintiffs’ lack of access to settlement agreement between Spotify and the NMPA. Lowery’s attorneys state that their requests to see the reported agreement have been rebuffed, leading to concerns the eventual class members are being given false statements about their litigation rights.

They believe the court has “both the authority and the duty to review and impose reasonable restrictions” on communications with potential class members to prevent Spotify from making misleading or inaccurate statements that would inform the songwriters about the nature of the litigation and their options for protecting their rights.

Source: Billboard

Academic Publishing Is Having a Napster Moment. Again.

April 6, 2016By admin

copyright Academic work is pirated for much the same reasons that music was in the early 2000s—not just because people prefer to get something for free, but because the industry’s distribution model is deeply broken. Academic publishing is dominated by for-profit companies including Reed Elsevier, Taylor & Francis, and Sage, and many university libraries, even at large research institutions, can’t afford the high subscription fees for all of the journals their faculty need.

Paying individually for articles is impractical when a researcher needs dozens or even hundreds of articles, which can cost up to $35 each, largely paid for with the personal funds of professors and students. I can’t count how many times I’ve seen my academic friends on Facebook FB 1.20% begging for someone with better library access to share a copy of an article they desperately need.

Source: Fortune