Best of BTB: The Force Remaking Scholarly Publishing

Copyright Clearance Center welcomes you to join us for another Frankfurt Book Fair Town Meeting on Open Access, on Thursday, October 15, from 9 to 11 a.m. in Hall 4.C – Alliance Function Room. For 2015, CCC is asking what the “Next Wave” of Open Access will bring to...

Books Join The Sharing Economy

The era of the “sharing economy” is upon us. From Uber to AirBnb and Snapgoods to Taskrabbit, web-based companies can now match service providers to their customers easily and directly. For the taxi and hotel industries, the result is unprecedented and unforeseen...

Oyster May Become Google’s Pearl

Subscription services abound online, for music as well as video and film. In recent years, various start-ups also have vied for a role as “the Netflix for books.” Of those who’ve made a mark – Oyster and Scribd, to name two – success has proven a double-edge sword. In...

Elements of Blogging

Where it comes to media, as digital diva Clay Shirky once noted, consumers are now producers, and that is the big story. The once-great wall separating reporters from readers has crumbled like sand. High culture and low culture have pretty much found the same level on...

Second Author Solutions Suit Ends Like the First

Where do we go to get our reputation back? That’s the question executives at independent publishing service provider Author Solutions are likely asking. A pair of lawsuits by authors alleging fraudulent business practices at Authors Solutions have recently ended,...

Copyright for Literate Robots

What is it that robots cannot do? In 2015, robots not only build our automobiles, but they also can drive them. Robots vacuum floors and work alongside human beings in warehouses. And sleepless, tireless robots read everything they find on the web. When they are found...

For Sale Sign Up For Perseus

The business side of books dominated headlines this week. At Perseus Books Group, a “For Sale” has returned to its front lawn, after it went away a little over a year ago. At Barnes & Noble, the most recent quarterly sales report makes for grim reading material....

Is Open Access Coming for Scholarly Books?

Most academics today expect to find Open Access research in scholarly journals, yet there are a growing number of OA books published each year, too. Is Open Access the answer to the question, “What is the future of long-form scholarly publishing?” A recent survey from...

A New World of Subsidiary Rights

Long ago, publishers built the first global networks, even if they didn’t call them that. They were bookstores and warehouses. Publishing still relies on interlocking networks and exchanges, but in 2015 they are virtual and digital. Rights are the essential links in...