Legal Archives | The Digital Reader

Could The Movie “Yesterday” be Based on the Book “Enormity”? (Maybe, but Probably Not)

20 February, 201921 February, 2019Intellectual Property9 Comments

The publishing industry's current controversy of the week for this week revolves around an upcoming movie, and an author who is claiming implies that the movie's plot is based on...

Amazon is Still Selling Pirated POD Textbooks

14 February, 201914 February, 2019Amazon, Piracy, POD3 Comments

Over the past three years I have reported no fewer than four times about Amazon's ongoing problem with counterfeit and pirated books in its POD service, Createspace. Here is...

New York State Considers a Tax on All Internet Sales Following Projected Budget Shortfall

8 February, 20198 February, 2019Amazon, Taxes7 Comments

Remember that tax deal that New York promised Amazon to bring the retailer to Long Island? Apparently it involved money that the state didn't have. Newsday reports that New...

Maryland Considers Sales Tax on eBooks and Other Digital Goods

5 February, 20195 February, 2019Taxes2 Comments

Maryland is thinking about joining the double handful of states that collect a sales tax on the price of ebooks and other digital content. From Eversheds-Sutherland.com: The Maryland House...

The Writers’ Union of Canada Condemns The Internet Archive’s Pirate Site, “The Open Library”

23 January, 201923 January, 2019Intellectual Property, Piracy4 Comments

Hard on the heels of news that the UK Society of Authors condemning the Internet Archive for piracy comes an announcement from The Writers’ Union of Canada expressing a similar...

The Authors Guild Calls for a “Public Lending Right”

16 January, 201918 January, 2019Intellectual Property, Libraries17 Comments

The Authors Guild looked at the survey report on author income that they released a couple weeks ago, and they have come up with a solution that won't actually...

For the First Time in Over 20 years, Copyrights Will Expire in the US

20 December, 20181 January, 2019Intellectual Property3 Comments

The problem with copyright law - particularly in the US - is that people keep wanting to profit off of that which they did not create. This is why...

Calibre is Being Used to Run 1,800 Online Content Servers – including De Facto Pirate Servers

11 December, 201817 December, 2018calibre, PiracyLeave a comment

Calibre is a widely used ebook library tool that can convert ebooks to and from just about any format and help you load said ebook on to just about...

B&N Counter-Sues Former CEO Parneros

30 October, 20183 November, 2018Barnes & Noble, Lawsuit6 Comments

The latest chapter in the three-month-old soap opera which began with B&N firing CEO Demos Parneros arrived today in the form of a counter-suit. From Reuters: Barnes & Noble...

EU Finally Allows For Lower VAT on eBooks

2 October, 20182 October, 2018ebook sales, Taxes5 Comments

So six years after EU members were punished for lowering the tax they collect on the sale of an ebook in violation of EU rules, the European Union decided...

Are POD Publishers Pirating Your Book on Amazon?

18 September, 201819 September, 2018Piracy, POD4 Comments

While programs like Google Books are performing a great public service by scanning rare public domain books and making them available, sometimes in-copyright books are also scanned and inadvertently...

Demos Parneros Files Wrongful Termination Suit Against B&N

28 August, 201828 August, 2018Barnes & Noble, Lawsuit7 Comments

The publishing industry had more questions than answers when Barnes & Noble abruptly fired its CEO last month. Demos Parneros was terminated with no notice or severance package, leaving...

EU Screws Up Copyright Ruling on Student’s Presentation

10 August, 201810 August, 2018Intellectual Property, Piracy6 Comments

One of the few bright spots in US copyright law (along with DMCA Safe Harbors) is the legal principle of fair use - the idea that under certain conditions...

Someone Filed a Trademark on the “Guy Holding Axe” Book Cover Design

19 July, 201819 July, 2018Intellectual Property7 Comments

If you found Faleena Hopkins's attempt to trademark the word "cocky" infuriating then this next trademark could give you a stroke. An author in the SPF Community FB group...

US Supreme Court Tax Ruling Means Authors Have to Collect Sales Tax on Direct Sales

21 June, 201821 June, 2018Taxes16 Comments

Whip out the Advil, because a recent ruling by the US Supreme Court is going to cause a lot of headaches for authors and other small operators who sell...

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