Showing posts with label library associations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label library associations. Show all posts

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Library Associations Brace for First Sale Fight with Owners’ Rights Lobby Effort; Library Journal, 10/23/12

Meredith Schwartz, Library Journal; Library Associations Brace for First Sale Fight with Owners’ Rights Lobby Effort: "The American Library Association (ALA) and the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) today teamed up with 17 other associations, retailers, and charities to launch a new coalition called the Owners’ Rights Initiative (ORI). ORI is an “informal alliance of stakeholders” that will defend the first sale doctrine, which allows libraries to lend books and other materials, as well as individual owners to resell them. The doctrine is under attack in the case of Kirtsaeng vs. Wiley, for which the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on October 29. Among ORI’s other members are eBay, Overstock, Powell’s Books, textbook buyer and seller Chegg, movie rental company Redbox, Goodwill, and Quality King Distributors, which is notable as the prevailing party in Quality King Distributors v. L’anza Research International, in which the Supreme Court in 1998 held that the first sale doctrine prevents copyright owners from controlling the importation of copyrighted goods sold outside the United States. (Notable for its absence is Costco, which was a party to the split decision Costco v. Omega case that raised similar issues.)"

Friday, August 21, 2009

Tech's Heavyweights Put Google's Books Deal In Crosshairs; Wall Street Journal, 8/21/09

Jessica E. Vascallero and Geoffrey A. Folwer via Wall Street Journal; Tech's Heavyweights Put Google's Books Deal In Crosshairs:

"Three technology heavyweights and some library associations are joining a coalition led by a prominent Silicon Valley lawyer to challenge Google Inc.'s settlement with authors and publishers.

Peter Brantley, a director at coalition co-founder Internet Archive said the group, whose members will be formally disclosed in the next couple of weeks, is being co-led by Gary Reback, a Silicon Valley lawyer involved in the Department of Justice's antitrust investigation against Microsoft Corp. last decade. Microsoft, Amazon.com Inc. and Yahoo Inc. have agreed to join the group. Mr. Reback did not reply to requests for comment.

Microsoft and Yahoo confirmed their participation. Amazon declined to comment.

The coalition is the latest sign that Google's rapid ascent has made it a prime target for competitors, just as Microsoft was reviled as the industry's bully in the 1990s.

Google defended the settlement, struck last October with the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers. "The Google Books settlement is injecting more competition into the digital books space, so it's understandable why our competitors might fight hard to prevent more competition," a Google spokesman said in a statement...

Since last year, a broad group of authors, librarians, European publishers and privacy advocates have argued that the settlement gives Google an unfair copyright immunity in offering future services around digital books that would be tough for other businesses to match."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125080725309147713.html

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Library Associations Oppose Repealing Public Access Bill, Urge Action, Information Today, 2/23/09

Via Information Today, Library Associations Oppose Repealing Public Access Bill, Urge Action:

"The Fair Copyright in Research Works Act, H.R. 801 (http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.801:), recently introduced by Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., would repeal the NIH Public Access Policy and prevent other federal agencies from enacting similar open access policies. In response, 10 library associations and advocacy groups, including AALL (American Association of Law Libraries), ACRL (Association of College & Research Libraries), ALA (American Library Association), ARL (Association of Research Libraries), and GWLA (Greater Western Library Alliance), have sent a letter to House Judiciary Committee members opposing the bill (www.wo.ala.org/districtdispatch/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/oawg_to_judiciary-09-feb-_3_x.pdf) and expressing their long-standing and strong support for the NIH Open Access Policy. A SPARC-sponsored analysis that outlines why the NIH Public Access policy does not affect copyright law was attached to the letter."

http://newsbreaks.infotoday.com/wndReader.asp?ArticleId=52728