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Amazon Is Thriving Thanks to Taxpayer Dollars…and government food stamps
The tech giant has received more than $1 billion in tax breaks. The government is also funding food stamps for many of its workers. BY DAVID DAYEN January 10, 2018 As Amazon builds up its distribution network, it’s hit on a trick long practiced by the likes of Walmart: using the federal government to help pay its workers. […]
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PEN America and PEN Center USA Unite Against Threats to Expression
PEN Center USA in LA to Join Forces with PEN America in New York to Create National Organization PEN America and PEN Center USA will join forces in 2018 as a stronger national organization under the banner of PEN America, uniting writers coast to coast to bolster the defense of free expression in the […]
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Fire and Fury – the right to freedom of speech under threat in the US
ABA and Authors Guild Slam Trump’s Legal Campaign Against ‘Fire and Fury’ By Jim Milliot | Jan 04, 2018 A range of book industry organizations, including the ABA and the Authors Guild, have issued public condemnations of President Trump’s attempt to block Henry Holt’s publication of Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House by Michael Wolff. […]
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Protecting copyright is crucial to fostering creativity
Protecting copyright is crucial to fostering creativity Copyright Agency Limited chairman Kim Williams.Picture: Stuart McEvoy The issues of copyright and respect for creators is a great policy challenge in Australian creative life. The rights of creators are under siege on many fronts: • no consideration to who loses out when books, music, TV or […]
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Author Richard Flanagan says artists are held in contempt by those in power
Award-winning author Richard Flanagan has accused politicians from both major parties of holding Australian artists in contempt and “frequently and assiduously” acting against their interests. Flanagan also said in a speech to the Copyright Agency that Australia faced the prospect of its culture being the “milch cow” of tech giants Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple, who he described […]
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Focus on Fair Use: Debunking Copyright’s Snake Oil Salesmen
Focus on Fair Use: Debunking Copyright’s Snake Oil Salesmen By Keith Kupferschmid, 1 December 2017 I was on the phone last week talking to someone about a potential partnership between our two organizations that could benefit individual creators. We began by exchanging information about our respective organizations. He spoke first, and I followed. After […]
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Thirty-four excellent kiwi kids’ books ripe for reading – The Sapling’s picks
Children’s book website The Sapling has released its inaugural Best Books List over the past week, listing 34 homegrown books that cover every reading interest and genre published in New Zealand. ‘Since launching in March, we have read or paid others to read almost every single book published in New Zealand. While even we […]
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#NZChristmasBookChallenge and #ReadtoSucceed
This Christmas, make one of your gifts a book by a NZ writer, published by a NZ publisher, bought from a NZ book shop. #NZChristmasBookChallenge We are promoting a ‘BUY NZ Books’ campaign for Christmas. With the tight economics of book publishing in NZ and the reduced retail visibility of books, we know that if we all buy one book […]
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CLIMATEKEYS: KEYBOARD CONVERSATIONS ACROSS THE WORLD – NZ
A series of piano recitals and climate discussions are being held around the globe in November, timed to coincide with the United Nations COP 23 conference being held in Bonn, Germany. An acclaimed pianist will play a concert – 30 minutes. This will be followed by a vigorous discussion facilitated by a climate change scientist […]
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‘Fair use’ infringes on creators’ property rights
Illustration: Tom Jellett ARTICLE BY JOHN BYRON in The Australian September 20, 2017 If the proposed regime were reasonable, it wouldn’t need to be marketed with such a cute baby panda name. Naming it “fair use” is like calling the harpooning of whales on the high seas a peaceful […]
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Ahead of Frankfurt: Michael Healy on World Copyright Issues Publishers Need to Watch
‘Copyright has come to be seen by many outside our industry as an inhibitor to creativity,’ writes Michael Healy ahead of a special session at the Frankfurt Book Fair on proliferating international challenges. By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson With Michael Healy, Exec. Director, Intl. Affairs, Copyright Clearance Center | @MJHealy ‘Copyright Wars’ At the Frankfurt Book […]
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NZ POLITICAL PARTIES – ELECTION 2017
WHAT WILL THE POLITICAL PARTIES DO FOR NEW ZEALAND’S LITERARY SECTOR? In June our National President, Siobhan Harvey, penned a letter to the leaders of all major and minor political parties, copied also to ministers with responsibility for both Business and Culture portfolios. We sought detail on their policies on issues pertinent to writers, authors […]
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