The New Republic: “America’s biggest, most powerful book publisher is about to get even bigger and more powerful. On Wednesday, a number of outlets reported that Penguin Random House had reached an agreement with ViacomCBS to purchase Simon & Schuster, the nation’s third-largest publisher, for $2 billion. The resulting conglomerate would publish at least a… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Intellectual Property
FTC Requires Zoom to Enhance its Security Practices as Part of Settlement
“The Federal Trade Commission today announced a settlement with Zoom Video Communications, Inc. that will require the company to implement a robust information security program to settle allegations that the video conferencing provider engaged in a series of deceptive and unfair practices that undermined the security of its users. Zoom has agreed to a requirement to… Continue Reading
Password protect PDF files, Google Documents, Sheets, and Google Slides
Google Workspace Marketplace – “And remove password protection from encrypted files. Easily protect any PDF file in your Google Drive with a password and add restrictions around printing, commenting, and annotations. Send the encrypted PDF files via email without leaving Google Drive. The PDF toolbox can also password protect native Google file formats include Google… Continue Reading
Pandemic Amplifies Trouble with Restrictive Licensing and E-Textbooks
SPARC – “…With the shift to remote learning, the demand for digital learning materials has intensified. Library staff are finding themselves having to educate their communities about the licensing restrictions and some are speaking out about the untenable position in which publishers have put them. In a shot across the bow, the University of Guelph… Continue Reading
Webinar – The Reasonable Robot: Artificial Intelligence and the Law
“Join the Center for Data Innovation on Friday, November 13, 2020 at 12:00 PM EDT for a conversation with Ryan Abbott on his new book The Reasonable Robot: Artificial Intelligence and the Law. The book argues that, as a general principle, the law should not discriminate between AI and human behavior, and discusses how this… Continue Reading
Academic publishing practices are making ebooks unaffordable, unsustainable and inaccessible to university libraries
Campaign to investigate the academic ebook market – “We are a group of academic librarians, researchers and university lecturers who have compiled an open letter asking the UK government to urgently investigate the academic publishing industry over its ebook pricing and licensing practices. The current situation is not working and it needs to change. Librarians… Continue Reading
Publishers Are Taking the Internet to Court In a lawsuit against the Internet Archive
The Nation – the largest corporations in publishing want to change what it means to own a book. “…The Internet Archive is far more than the Open Library; it’s a nonprofit institution that has become a cornerstone of archival activity throughout the world. Brewster Kahle is an Internet pioneer who was writing about the importance… Continue Reading
2020 Cost of a Data Breach Report
Via Bluefin: “IBM and the Ponemon Institute’s long-awaited 2020 Cost of a Data Breach Report has finally arrived — and with it comes critical insight into the current landscape of cyber security. For the fifteenth consecutive year, IBM and the Ponemon Institute have partnered to analyze the latest breaches at over 500 organizations to uncover… Continue Reading
Learn how to find image licensing information on Google Images
Google Blog: “First, we’re making it easier to find licensable images. For results where the publisher or image creator provided licensing information, we will display a “licensable” badge over the image. When you select a badged image to view, we will show a link to the license details of the image, and if provided by… Continue Reading
The Washington Post Will Soon Be Gone From LexisNexis
Washingtonian: “The Washington Post and LexisNexis have been unable to agree to terms. As a result, the Post‘s content stopped updating on LexisNexis products as of Saturday, the service announced to users last week, and archived content will vanish from the service on October 31…” [h/t Barclay Walsh] Continue Reading
YouTube Audio
“Enjoy royalty-free Sound Effects from the YouTube Audio Library. The YouTube Audio Library is a collection of music tracks that are freely available for YouTube creators to download and feature as background music in their videos. These high-quality 320kbps tracks are available royalty-free. Using them will not result in a claim on your video.” Continue Reading
Experts respond to big publishers’ attacks on libraries and digital lending
San Francisco, CALIFORNIA — “Overnight, millions of people all over the world lost access to millions of physical books when libraries and schools closed to stop the spread of COVID-19. The nonprofit Internet Archive (IA) is now being sued by four big publishers for actions IA took to help communities during the pandemic and establish… Continue Reading
