NEWS Two e-book initiatives merge
Two university press e-book initiatives, Project MUSE Editions (PME) and the University Press e-book Consortium (UPeC), have joined forces. The result of this merger, the University Press Content Consortium (UPCC), will launch next January. The partnership allows e-books from an anticipated 60 to 70 university presses and non-profi t scholarly presses, representing as many as 30,000 frontlist and backlist titles, to be discovered and searched in an integrated environment with content from nearly 500 journals currently on MUSE. Representatives of UPeC and PME are said to have worked closely with librarians over the past two years to develop
a scholarly e-book model that benefi ts both libraries and presses. The UPCC Collections will be sold by MUSE in comprehensive and subject-based collections, with minimal digital rights management.
‘The University Press Content Consortium will be the online destination for peer-reviewed university press scholarship,’ said Steve Maikowski, director of the New York University Press and one of the press directors spearheading UPeC. ‘The effi ciencies and cost savings resulting from this collaboration will bring far more revenue to participating presses than current third-party models,’ he said. ‘Because both initiatives are university-press based, there is a strong mission alliance.’
Piracy threatens professional book publishers, says study
Professional book publications – which generate $13.91 billion in revenue annually – are confronting mounting losses from digital piracy, according to Simba Information. An article in the market intelligence fi rm’s bi-monthly newsletter Professional Content Report, ‘Professional Book Piracy Thriving in Cyberspace,’ says several websites that publish textbooks and e-books for free are profi ting through subscriptions and advertising while maintaining immunity from copyright infringement. This, argues Simba, makes these profi teers very diffi cult opponents.
According to the article, progress is being made through trade associations and cooperation between publishers;
however, there remains a greater need of public awareness, government resources and
collective effort to effectively combat book piracy.
‘If piracy is next to impossible to
fi ght, the question is how publishers should react to this situation,’ noted Dan Strempel, senior editor of Professional Content Report. ‘Do they treat piracy as part of the cost of doing business in the internet age, or do they try and recoup piracy losses from paying customers by raising prices? It would be extremely challenging for publishers to do the latter, considering the economic pressures in the scholarly/professional system. Until someone puts the “force” in international copyright enforcement, publishers might just have to learn to deal with it.’
6 Research Information APR/MAY 2011
SkyRiver continues complaint against OCLC Lawyers for SkyRiver Technology Solutions LLC have fi led its opposition to OCLC’s motion to dismiss its complaint. SkyRiver’s complaint alleges that OCLC has engaged in predatory and exclusionary business practices in violation of federal and state antitrust laws. ‘OCLC’s motion to dismiss
that was fi led in December misrepresented the antitrust claims made in the original complaint and our 4 February fi ling sets the record straight,’ commented SkyRiver president Leslie Straus. ‘We are seeking a level playing
NEWS in brief
JournalTOCs service offers free trial JournalTOCs is offering libraries a free trial of a lightweight customisation service for scholarly journals tables of contents. The free trial, which is available until the end of April 2011, will provide each participating library with a searchable and browsable database of the most recent (issues published since 2008) tables of contents of up to 15,200 scholarly journals to which that library subscribes.
SAGE rewards reviewers
SAGE has announced a global reviewer rewards programme that will provide those who review papers for its journals with free electronic access to the entire list of SAGE journals. The programme, which was trialled in 2010 with a small number of titles, is now being offered for all the 630+ journals currently published by SAGE. Reviewers will be offered free 30- day access to all titles on the SAGE Journals Online platform, as well as a 25 per cent discount on all SAGE books.
fi eld for the development and marketing of products for libraries and an end to the anti-competitive behaviour by OCLC that punishes its own members.’
Publishing Technology implements rights system for Sterling Publishing Publishing Technology has announced the fi rst live installation of its new advance Contract, Rights & Royalties (CR&R) solution for non-fi ction book publisher Sterling Publishing, a subsidiary of Barnes and Noble Booksellers. The advance CR&R solution provides for the management and payment of royalties and subsidiary rights and includes electronic interfaces to support the import of title, author/payee, and sales data. The CR&R system, from advance, manages a number of functions including royalty contracts, author and contributor data, royalty products and sales, royalty payment calculations, and statement production.
Facilitating small licence deals for German books The VLB – Books in Print Catalogue will in future include Copyright Clearance Center’s (CCC’s) automated and standardised rights trade system for small licence deals for the German- language sector. This is thanks to a cooperation between MVB Marketing- und Verlagsservice des Buchhandels GmbH and the CCC, which provides copyright licensing solutions. As part of this cooperation, the software and technology from ‘Rightslink’ will be integrated into the VLB. Publishing companies will be able to include details of the licence-available rights to use of their titles and the licence fees incurred on MVB RightsLink.
www.researchinformation.info
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