Lit Agents Back Google Lawsuits - 10/21/2005 - Publishers Weekly:

Google is having a bad week, at least in print. Two days after the AAP filed a copyright infringement lawsuit over the controversial Google Print for Library program, lit agents jumped on the Google Library-bashing bandwagon.

The Association of Authors Representatives (AAR) released an open letter Thursday saying it supported both the AAP’s lawsuit and the similar suit filed last month by the Authors Guild. In the letter, addressed to Google chairman and CEO Eric E. Schmidt, AAR president Gail Hochman said her organization believes Google’s digitization project poses “an egregious violation” of copyright law and that it is “an affront to the rights and integrity” of both authors and their books.

Hochman said that the AAR would, in a show of support, offer assistance to any of its agent- or author-clients “resisting and opposing Google’s Library project.”

Somehow, having an agent on your side doesn’t feel quite as inspiring as the agents probably think …

Booksellers say pictures sell more than words - Sify.com:

Frankfurt: The market for glossy illustrated books is booming as readers around the world increasingly want to sneak a look at other people’s lives, publishers at the Frankfurt book fair said.

“It’s easier to look than to read,” remarked Ilaria Del Secco Cappelli from the Italian publisher Alinari that has specialized in picture books since it opened its doors in Florence in 1852.

Introducing widgets for your blog or web site - blog.memeorandum.com

Essential stuff for trendy bloggers.

Bush Adviser Acknowledges Lack of Preparation for Katrina:

Bush Adviser Acknowledges Lack of Preparation for Katrina

Dog bites man.

Lit Agents Back Google Lawsuits - 10/21/2005 - Publishers Weekly:

Google is having a bad week, at least in print. Two days after the AAP filed a copyright infringement lawsuit over the controversial Google Print for Library program, lit agents jumped on the Google Library-bashing bandwagon.

The Association of Authors Representatives (AAR) released an open letter Thursday saying it supported both the AAP’s lawsuit and the similar suit filed last month by the Authors Guild. In the letter, addressed to Google chairman and CEO Eric E. Schmidt, AAR president Gail Hochman said her organization believes Google’s digitization project poses “an egregious violation” of copyright law and that it is “an affront to the rights and integrity” of both authors and their books.

Hochman said that the AAR would, in a show of support, offer assistance to any of its agent- or author-clients “resisting and opposing Google’s Library project.”

Somehow, aving an agent on your side doesn’t feel quite as inspiring as the agents may think …

–
Posted by wfzimmerman to What’s New for Book-Lovers at 10/21/2005 05:10:23 PM

Booksellers say pictures sell more than words - Sify.com:

Frankfurt: The market for glossy illustrated books is booming as readers around the world increasingly want to sneak a look at other people’s lives, publishers at the Frankfurt book fair said.

“It’s easier to look than to read,” remarked Ilaria Del Secco Cappelli from the Italian publisher Alinari that has specialized in picture books since it opened its doors in Florence in 1852.

–
Posted by wfzimmerman to What’s New for Book-Lovers at 10/21/2005 04:59:58 PM

Introducing widgets for your blog or web site - blog.memeorandum.com

Essential stuff for trendy bloggers.

–
Posted by wfzimmerman to Tech Fun at 10/21/2005 04:35:44 PM

All the Dirt That’s Fit to Print: “[wonkette creator Ana Marie] Cox pleads [that her novel due in January] is all a mere fiction. ‘I now realize that it’s impossible to create any Washington character without somebody thinking it’s them,’ she said via BlackBerry, of course, from Puerto Rico. ‘I shouldn’t have written a novel, I should have written an index.’”

Terry McAuliffe, Fundraising Client: “Terry McAuliffe, former Democratic National Committee chairman and fundraiser extraordinaire, is raking in some serious money for himself: He has signed a seven-figure advance with St. Martin’s Press for his inside look at Democratic politics.

The book — tentatively titled ‘Bring It On!’ — is McAuliffe’s exuberant, in-your-face take on 25 years with the Democrats, starting with Jimmy Carter’s failed presidential reelection campaign and ending as DNC chairman, a position he held from 2001 until February. The deal was based on a three-page proposal that launched a bidding war among five publishers for ‘great, funny, inside stories that no one else has heard,’ McAuliffe said yesterday in his trademark low-key manner.

Like what? He wouldn’t tell us, of course. We’ll have to shell out to read behind-the-scene tales about Bill and Hillary Clinton, Al Gore and big-bucks Democratic donors.”
Snoozefest.

Telegraph | News | Brown stole idea for Da Vinci Code, claim authors:

Dan Brown, author of The Da Vinci Code, is to face a High Court action brought by the authors of the 1982 non-fiction book The Holy Blood, and the Holy Grail, who allege that his blockbuster was based on their decade of research.

Speaking ahead of a preliminary hearing of the case next week, Richard Leigh, 62, one of the writers, said: “I don’t begrudge Brown his success. I have no particular grievance against him, except for the fact that he wrote a pretty bad novel.”

The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail

Mr Leigh, an American who has lived in England since 1974, and Michael Baigent, 57, a New Zealander, his co-author, are suing Random House, Brown’s publishers, for infringement of their ideas.

They are funding the action with the proceeds of their book, which Random House has reissued in a special �20 hardback edition to cash in on the success of Brown’s novel.

Henry Lincoln, 75, a Londoner who also co-wrote the book, is ill and has decided to remain out of the action.

A two-week trial is scheduled for the end of February, with both sides assembling formidable legal teams.

If a judge backs the action, the UK release in May of Sony Pictures’s �53 million film of The Da Vinci Code may be delayed. Paul Sutton, solicitor for the writers, said: “A reason that this case is so important is that it can create a precedent in

Waah, waah, waah. This ain’t going anywhere.