Copyright and Copy-Wrong

My thoughts on the future of “E”-books

Rule of Ann (1709)

The exclusive right to print and copy.

Protected 3 groups

1. Authors

2. Publishers

3. Readers

Creativity

Copyright systems should

1. Encourage creativity and fires the imagination. (Author)

2. Promote sharing. (Distributor)

3. Create space for the reader to have their own personal experience. (You)

A well informed and educated population is good for democracy.

Copyright, Licensing, Ownership

Copyright is the set of exclusive rights granted to the author or creator of an original work, including the right to copy, distribute and adapt the work

License: A legal document giving official permission to do something. In this case Amazon is giving you the permission to read.

Ownership: The relation of an owner to the thing possessed; possession with the right to transfer possession to others possession: the act of having and controlling property the state or fact of being an owner.

Digital Rights Management

Digital rights management (DRM) is a generic term for access control technologies that can be used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals to limit the usage of digital content and devices.

This is a really about limiting they way that you access information.

Can’t you legally break DRM? Yes

You can’t create a DRM breaking tool and then distribute that tool? No

Is cannibalism really wrong?

How about licensing freedom? How about the freedom to lend a book to a friend.

How about licensing a lowercase “i”? I think this has been attempted.

How about only being allowed to watch movies in movie theaters?

How about not being able to listen to an audio-book because you only have an ipod and that book isn’t available in that format.

#Fail.

Licensing and DRM have nothing to do with Copyright and everything to do with control. It makes sense to license some things like having a handgun or drive a car but reading?

Things that need protecting.

1.Reading, listening and viewing (This is the core of experience and literacy)

2. You have the right to enjoy the work in anyway you want rather than how the licensing company determines how you should enjoy the work.

3. Copyright was designed for the reader to have a creative and imaginative experience and to share that experience.

The strategy Ebook licensing The Kindle EULA is a good example.

Section 3, which deals with "Digital Content" (such as downloaded books), says that "Unless specifically indicated otherwise, you may not sell, rent, lease, distribute, broadcast, sublicense or otherwise assign any rights to the Digital Content or any portion of it to any third party, and you may not remove any proprietary notices or labels on the Digital Content."

In other words, you are forbidden to lend or sell the book you've just "bought". In real-world terms, you can't lend your copy of 1984 to a friend or donate it to the school jumble sale.

Legalized monopoly of distribution.

My thoughts

How is this all going to work out?

Let’s take a look at the publishing industry and think a few years back to the record industry.

Let’s look at classical publishing industry today

Curate (Pick the right title)

Production (Co-create, edit manufacture)

Let’s look at classical publishing industry today

Financial Risk (Invest in an idea)

Distribute (Shelf space in bookstores)

Promote (Market)

The digital publishing landscape looks different No manufacturing (Not killing trees)

Lower financial risk (There is not cost associated to killing trees)

There is infinite shelf space.

No longer mass marketing.

That’s 4 out of 5 in the traditional publishing model.

What are smart digital publishers doing? Picking great titles and authors.

Helping with development (editing and co-creating).

Connecting the audience with the work.

What are the not so smart digital publishers doing?

They are acting like classical print publishers.

1. Trying to control the market.

2. Limiting access.

3. Self interest trumps the readers interest.

It didn’t work for the record industry it will fail for the publishing industry. Not today and not in the immediate future but the old model is unsustainable.

Independent Digital Publishing

It costs nothing to become a independent publisher.

Why should an author give up 80% - 90% of the income to a publishing house?

Tim O’Reilly said “The problem for artists is not piracy it’s obscurity.”

Preserve the rights of the reader. Authors need readers more than they need lawyers.

Rethinking publishing

Classical and Digital rather than Classical versus Digital.

Some things just work perfectly being digital published.

1. Dictionaries

2. Encyclopedias

Situational publishing such as travel and restaurant guides.

(Digital publishing includes Twitter, Blogs, YouTube, Web pages and E-books)

Rethinking books

Thinks exist in the book form because there up until now has not been a better format.

In some ways a book is just an interface to information.

The link between licensing and trust.

Licensing is not trust. DRM is a perfect example.

When you trust people you increase speed and decrease cost. Digital publishing companies that understand this will have an advantage.

Fact

Printed material over the next 10 years will decline and

continue to decline!

So what are libraries to do?

Understand that every dollar spent today on the collection is just licensing access.

Develop an E-book collection policy.

Create a collection that is disposable. Continue to look for opportunities.