Sunday, December 13, 2009

Who owns the rights?

An article in the NY Times today discussed a problem that may not at first glance seem related to children's books--the questions of who owns the rights to e-book versions of literary works published before e-books existed. Books by several of the authors who wrote in the mid-twentieth century have slow but steady sales through the years. These sales might grow if the books were available in popular e-book formats, but the heirs of the authors are arguing with publishers about who owns the rights to that format. Producing an e-book from material already available in electronic format is cheap and quite easy. Publishers can earn a lot of money if they sell well, while authors or their heirs get about 25% in royalties. The issue of what a fair royalty payment would be has not been settled, but many publishers have long backlists of titles that would find new sales in e-book format. Children's books often last longer than adult titles and it is likely that as publishers decide to produce them in electronic format, the same issue of rights will come up. Librarians will have to keep on eye on how the legal battles are progressing because unless a reasonable arrangement is reached, children may be denied access to some of the books they could and should be able to enjoy.

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