As the US Copyright Office considers the thousands of comments on “copyright law and policy issues raised by artificial intelligence systems,” the Federal Trade Commission drew attention with a press release to their own position on generative AI in the marketplace — suggesting the agency stands ready to protect creators from unfair competition and consumers from non-transparent machine-generated content. From a pure copyright perspective, resolving issues around fair use could take months to formulate and legislate, or more likely years to litigate, while the world changes before creators’ eyes. Importantly, the FTC states more definitively what creators have been waiting […]
RIP WSJ Bestseller Lists
On November 4 the Wall Street Journal published their final set of book bestseller lists licensed from Circana Bookscan (for the sales week ending October 28). After 14 years of licensing Bookscan data, Dow Jones decided to let their agreement expire. The newspaper began using Bookscan print book sales data for their bestseller lists in 2009 and in late 2011 Bookscan started supplying them with ebook sales data for inclusion in the WSJ charts as well.
Copyright Office Shares Comments On AI Legal Issues
Earlier this year the US Copyright Office solicited comment on “copyright law and policy issues raised by artificial intelligence systems,” in order to “help assess whether legislative or regulatory steps in this area are warranted.” They have received nearly 10,000 comments, which were recently posted into a searchable archive, including extensive submissions from market leaders such as OpenAI, Google and Meta. Google takes the classic tech company approach, suggesting any issues should be left to the courts (where final adjudication will be glacial). Like all of their peers, they argue that large language models (LLMs) are just math; they “capture […]
Marking the Days
Whether you see it as a time of harvest and winding down for hibernation or a period of declining light, temperature and life force, fall is a sentimental season. Our usual antidote is to focus on commemoration, and looking forward to renewal on the horizon, even when events in the world or one’s own life makes it difficult (which is too often the case). Typically this is when we take a brief moment to mark the launch of PublishersMarketplace.com in a different challenging season — 22 years ago, in fall 2001, shortly after 9/11 and not too long after the […]
All Seasons Press Sues Author Mark Meadows For Lying — Or For Then Telling the Truth?
In a filing that deftly blends unintended comedy with performance art, publisher All Seasons Press sued author Mark Meadows in a Florida state court on Friday, alleging breach of contract in his publishing agreement. They seek payment of approximately $3 million in expenses, potential lost profits, and “reputational harm.” The publisher says that they are acting based on unconfirmed press reports that Meadows testified before a grand jury in exchange for immunity “that neither he nor President Trump actually believed…claims” that the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent. The suit claims the publisher “determined that it was legally and ethically obliged […]
Simon & Schuster Sales Fall From Peak, “But We’re Still Flying High”
Simon & Schuster released public results for the last time as a unit of Paramount Global, covering their third quarter. The publisher’s remarkable streak of increased (or flat, as of the last report) sales came to an end, with revenue of $307 million — down $46 million (or 13 percent) from the same period a year ago. (That’s also below sales of $321 million in Q3 2021.) Operating income was down sharply as well, though still a robust margin, at $60 million, compared to $93 million a year ago.) The last time the publisher reported a sales decline was back […]