Vit Wagner Asks Canadian Pub Execs about CopyRight
The Toronto Star’s Vit Wagner wrote a story about Bill C61 and the book publishing industry called ‘
There are a couple of choice quotes in this story.
M&S’s Doug Pepper…
“We’re doing everything we can to work with Google and Amazon and others to ensure that the content is not steal-able.”
Random House’s Brad Martin…
“…if Margaret Atwood’s e-book is available on Amazon.com and Amazon.com is selling into the Canadian market, we’re not going to get the income from it.”
M&S’s Susan Renouf…
“We have a window of time to figure out how to do it right…. I also think there is more goodwill between the consumer and the book industry. There isn’t a sense that authors get ripped off the way musicians were. Whether they were or not, there is a perception that they were. There’s a sense that if consumers pay us, the artists get paid and get paid fairly.”
House of Anansi’s Sarah MacLachlan
“I don’t believe that we will be left in the dust.”
Overall I would say they sound like a confident bunch — calm even.
- Pepper speaks of “steal-able” content. If I were him I would want my content to be shareable. The all-sharers-are-thieves mentality seems a little 2005. Still interesting that they are working with Google. Hmmm.
- Martin is worried about territorial rights. He should be. Maybe. In the last couple of months, US content providers on the web have successfully blocked international audiences from their material. Gradually that same content has come online from Canadian-sources. This is a good omen for Canadian distributors. The distribution model from the physical world is being imposed on the digital. Over time the publishing industry will likely get there. If customers get impatient, the copyright legislation and the Hertitage Ministry will help ensure both that ‘culture’ of all kinds is routed through Canadian-owned pipes and that Canadian consumers are kept in line. A bad omen is the implosion of the practice of ‘windowing’ releases in different TV and film formats. Shortly it is going to make a lot less sense to sell HC, tradepaper, audio, and digital rights for the same work to different companies. Revenue will be credited to the acquiring publisher. That is going to cut both ways for a publisher like Martin’s.
- Renouf is essenitally saying that publishing is different and that somehow we will be saved from the massive change that infinitely re-producable content has wrought elsewhere. She is not alone. Micheal Cader lead a panel last year at Frankfurt where a top Random House executive said the same thing. “Our readers like us so we won’t go out of business.” The movie and newspaper folks said the same thing too. Of course every industry is different. Hulu seems to be stealing YouTube’s thunder. The news business, however, has no such beacon of hope. Renouf’s quotation would make a lot more sense to me if she said consumers were being ripped off by the music industry, not — as she claims — that the musicians were the losers.
- MacLachlan’s words had me wondering what she meant by “left in the dust.” If she is in a race she best get on the digital horse. Instant publishing left the barn long ago. Between Anansi, M&S, and Random, Anansi has great chance of getting out a head. Good luck to all.
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