Germany’s First Half of 2021: Ebook Dynamics, and Libraries — “In the past year, Skipis’ staff at the Börsenverein is reporting, the growth rate of the users of digital library services was six times as high as the growth rate of ebook sales. It’s becoming apparent, the association says, that the demand will remain high in 2021. And—in an observation that many in the library world might prefer not to hear—surveys show, according to the Börsenverein, that many users of of library ebook loans ‘have bought fewer or no books at all since they’ve borrowed ebooks from their library.'”
Texas A&M escapes copyright claims at 5th Circ. over 12th Man story — One of several cases navigating the state sovereign immunity waters post-Allen v. Cooper. In an unpublished opinion, the Fifth Circuit denied relief for Michael Bynum after employees of the school’s athletic department posted a copy of his unpublished manuscript on their public website.
TED Demands CC License from Photographers, Fails to Provide Credit — “A photographer has accused the popular American media organization TED of requesting that he list a photo as Creative Commons with attribution and then failing to abide by those copyright rules. TED — which stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design — hosts speaking engagements that are distributed online for free under the slogan ‘ideas worth spreading.’ According to photographer Paul Clarke, the organization forces photographers to list any photos of a TED event as creative commons, but fails to abide by those rules.”
The Publishers Association Ramps Up Site Blocking to Reduce Piracy — “The Publishers Association, a UK organization supporting members producing digital and print books, research journals, and educational resources, obtained its first pirate site blocking injunction in 2015. Six years later the group has now been granted an expansion in an effort to restrict access to domains that helped to circumvent the aims of the High Court order.” And the internet has yet to break.
YouTube outlines its approach to copyright as EU member states keep transposing the Copyright Directive into national law — Emmanuel Legrand writes, “YouTube has been adjusting its approach to copyright to take into account the implementation of the European Copyright Directive into national law by EU members states. The changes were made necessary by the incorporation into European and member states law of Article 15, which introduced a neighbouring right for news publishers, and Article 17, which introduced a set of new rules for certain content-sharing services like YouTube, in particular the need to make ‘best efforts’ to identify rights holders and ensure that unlicensed content is taken down, or licensed.”