Stealing Books in the Age of Self-Publishing — The Atlantic reports, “In the world of self-publishing, where anyone can put a document on Amazon and call it a book, many writers are seeing their work being appropriated without their permission. Some books are copied word-for-word while others are tinkered with just enough to make it tough for an automated plagiarism-checker to flag them. (Though the practice is legally considered copyright infringement, the term ‘plagiarism’ is more widely used.) The offending books often stay up for weeks or even months at a time before they’re detected, usually by an astute reader. For the authors, this intrusion goes beyond threatening their livelihood.”
Irving Azoff Calls on Music Industry to ‘Work Together’ in National Music Publishers’ Assn. Keynote — The notable music exec delivered a powerful address at NMPA’s 99th annual meeting this week, concluding, as Billboard reports here, by telling those in the audience that “no matter what role he played in the industry, as a manger, a promoter, a label executive, ‘If you do what’s right by the creator’—whether that’s the artist or songwriter—’it will eventually be right for your company as well.'”
JFK on Poetry, Power, and the Artist’s Role in Society: His Eulogy for Robert Frost, One of the Greatest Speeches of All Time — “If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him. We must never forget that art is not a form of propaganda; it is a form of truth… In free society art is not a weapon and it does not belong to the spheres of polemic and ideology. Artists are not engineers of the soul. It may be different elsewhere. But democratic society — in it, the highest duty of the writer, the composer, the artist is to remain true to himself and to let the chips fall where they may. In serving his vision of the truth, the artist best serves his nation.”
Spoiler alert: Superheroes are regular people — Tom Ortenberg, executive producer of the film Spotlight, writes, “The real-life journalists portrayed in ‘Spotlight’ are superheroes. The filmmakers and crewmembers that made this film possible are superheroes. That is why I consider our film to be its own kind of superhero movie. But it is also a story about a fading segment of our culture: print journalism. Great films about true events can become a part of the historical record. If I have any grand ambitions for ‘Spotlight’ beyond accolades and awards, it’s that this film will preserve for all time the era of investigative journalism that appears to be slipping away in the face of technology that promises quick and easy fixes for virtually everything.”
Don’t Block Geoblocking — “[R]ules that allow copyright holders to charge different prices to different consumers benefit society by encouraging greater distribution at a lower average price overall. A movie studio might charge a higher price in a developed country while charging a lower price in developing countries. Because rich markets are normally less sensitive to price, this practice normally favors poorer consumers. But it can only exist if price discrimination and geoblocking is protected. If consumers are allowed to arbitrage the market, the producer will create less and charge higher prices.”