The Copyright Clearance Center’s “Beyond the Book” podcast features an interview with CEO and founder of Smashwords, Mark Coker. In the interview, Coker discusses how self-publishing has become a first option for many authors because of the economic incentive, the immediacy and the control of distribution. He explains how the future of traditional print publishing is diminishing and more authors are turning to self-publishing with the rise of e-books.  The podcast is available here and the transcript is available here. ...

Here’s an e-book project to raise money for a cause local to me. GalleyCat reports on a digital anthology project featuring essays by a number of authors discussing how movies have influenced their work. Editor Cynthia Hawkins explains: [Proceeds] will go to the Joplin Eagles Television 14 Program through the Joplin Schools Tornado Relief Fund. The JET 14 Program instructs 160 students each school year in the fundamentals of film production and broadcasting. […] The JET 14 Program lost everything on May 22, their technology center and studio, studio...

Ars Technica reports that Rights Haven’t, I mean Wrong Headed, I mean Righthaven has just gotten hit with another big fine in the form of a $119,488 legal fees award to another plaintiff. Couldn’t happen to a nicer law firm. The case in question, Righthaven vs. Thomas DiBiase, was another one of those cases that the noted e-newspaper copyright troll filed en masse in an attempt to force a several-thousand-dollar settlement, but DiBiase got it dismissed using the same argument that seems to be sinking Righthaven’s cases elsewhere: the company didn’t actually own the necessary rights in order to give...

It’s time for the tri-yearly circus to kick off again. Ars Technica reports that it’s just about time for the Library of Congress to consider granting exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s DRM anti-circumvention provisions. This process comes every three years, and the exemptions last only until the next exemption granting—which means that even already-granted exemptions have to be requested and argued again. The last go-round resulted in six exemptions, including allowing circumvention for incorporating clips into new works for purpose of criticism or comment, including educational purposes. (Apparently the MPAA’s suggestion that professors should just point a...

As Amazon goes, so goes Kobo? A report from CBC suggests that would seem to be the case. Kobo CEO Michael Serbinis says that Kobo is developing a publishing arm to offer complete publishing services (including editing and design) for authors who would like to publish through it. It’s not clear from the article whether this service just covers e-books, or is like Amazon’s new publishing division in offering both electronic and print publication services. Either way, it’s one more way e-book-based firms are competing with traditional publishers, though traditional publishers don’t necessarily seem to be worried just yet....

You can find the US Copyright Office's report here (pdf).  It lists as priorities orphan works, mass book digitization and streamlining registration. Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) welcomes the announcement today by the U.S. Register of Copyrights, Maria Pallante, of her priorities for the next two years. Copyright industries are a critical part of the US and global economies.  Advances in technology are accelerating options for creating, distributing, consuming, sharing and preserving content while globally, laws have not kept pace with technology advances.  For more than 20 years, the important principle of copyright which protects the work of authors and creators has faced...

They have gotten a pre-release view of the unit: Kobo will be releasing their first tablet dubbed “Vox” this Friday at Chapters/Indigo locations and from their website in the USA. It will be priced at $199 and is competitively priced vs. the Kindle Fire. We just got back from Toronto, where we were at the Kobo HQ and got a full hands on review a few days before it officially comes out! Hardware The Kobo Vox features a 7 inch capacitive multi-touchscreen display with a resolution of 1025×600. The colors absolutely pop on this unit and the entire interface was customized for...

From ZDNet: Apple’s Newsstand for iOS has only been open to the public for a few weeks, and already the mobile app is proving to be a wild success for digital publishing. Conde Nast might be reaping the most rewards at the moment as magazine publishing house saw a 268 percent increase in digital subscription sales since Newsstand rolled out with iOS 5 on October 12. Following this rapid success, Conde Nast is also planning to bring three more of its heavyweight titles to Apple’s tablet, including Conde Nast Traveler, Bon Appetit, and the grande dame of them all,Vogue. UPDATE: The rub is...

From The Bookseller: E-book sales and the acquisition of Continuum helped sales at Bloomsbury leap 16% ... … E-book sales surged by 564% between 2010 and 2011 and are worth £2.5m, or 5.5% of total group sales. Newton said: "Our early-mover advantage and the investment we have made, means we are well positioned to benefit from continued digital growth."  ...

From eSchool News: Fifty-two percent of children ages 5-8 use smart phones, video iPods, iPads, or similar devices, and four in 10 2- to 4-year-olds use the same devices, according to a new national study on young children’s use of media. “Zero to Eight: Children’s Media Use in America” documents young children’s use of new digital mediadevices such as iPads or other tablet devices and mobile apps, along with older media platforms such as television, computers, and books. ... Despite the proliferation of new technologies and platforms, television continues to dominate children’s media use. Among all children up to age 8, an average of one...

ASUS announced the DR-900 back in January 2010, and it's finally shipping now in the UK for £279.99 ($450). The DR-900 is a 9" e-reader with a touch Sipix (AUO) display. It has 4GB of internal memory (and an SD card slot) and supports Wi-Fi and 3G (and optionally WiMax, too). The DR-900 got a web-browser, a virtual keyboard and it supports handwriting input. Formats include PDF, TXT, MP3 and ePub. Via E-Reader-info...

Publishing Executive and Book Business magazines will be presenting the Publishing Business Virtual Conference & Expo on October 27, 2011 and on-demand for 3 months. This FREE virtual event is designed to uncover real opportunities in digital content for...