Thursday 25 June 2009

Book publishers go phishing

On the same day that the courts decided the ISP Ephone has to give out IP details to book publishers over filesharing on a private (password restricted) server -Swedens first ruling under the controversial IPRED legislation - the Författarförbund (Swedish authors association) is warning it's members against signing agreements with publishers over e-book rights.

Publishers have been mailing their authors en masse to get them to sign over e-book rights to works in perpetuity. E-books are expected to take off big time and publishers are looking to stake their claim in the gold rush.

"Authors that have been around a while understand at once that this contract is not OK... "
...but some of the less wary are signing on the dotted line.

It's nice to know that the media industry is looking after the best interests of our creative talent...

Get those authors a spam filter!


Footnote: Contracts have automatic renewals after seven years with a four month period for authors to annul the agreement.

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