16 December 2011

Google Book Settlement

In a ‘Fairness Hearing’ in a US court in March Judge Denny Chin rejected proposals to settle the litigation brought by the Association of American Publishers (AAP) and Authors Guild against Google in respect of its digitisation of books in US libraries. In addition to US works the settlement (as amended) included UK, Canadian and Australian publications.  Judge Chin encouraged the parties to negotiate amendments to the settlement, suggesting a model whereby works were opted in, rather than included by default and then opted-out.

To read more click here.

Government Review of Intellectual Property and Growth (the Hargreaves report)

In November 2010 the Government commissioned a review of the UK’s intellectual property (IP) system as part of its programme to identify the necessary stimulants for future economic growth. The review team gathered evidence from various sectors during the spring – the ALCS submission can be found on the ‘Lobbying and Submissions’ page of our website –  and published their findings in May in the form of a report entitled: Digital Opportunity.

This brief note summarises the areas in the report that are likely to be of greatest relevance to ALCS and its Members.

3 August 2011

The Government has today published its response to the Report. The report can be downloaded from www.ipo.gov.uk/ipresponse
Details of what this means for writers will be published shortly.

PLR Ireland

ALCS Members should note that the 2011 deadline for the registration of new titles with Irish PLR has been confirmed as Friday 2 September.  

Please see here for more details and to find out how to receive PLR Ireland payments through ALCS.