[FM Discuss] TOC report part one...

[adam hyde]

ok,..so i started writing the report about the conf for the list, and it
seems its getting long...so i am going to serialise it...heres part one,
consider it the pilot of the mini series...

TOC Report Part one : Copyright, and the future of the book


So I spent three days at the OReilly Tools of Change conference in New
York. The conference is one I wanted to go to last year but the cost is
about $1600 USD so I couldnt go. This year I submitted a proposal for a
lightening talk and Andrew Savikas from OReilly liked the sound of what
we are doing and invited me to come.

Thankfully I was able to coincide the conference with the FLOSSify1 Book
Sprint and a meeting with the Free Software Foundation to make the trip
extra worthwhile. Having said that, the trip was worth it on the basis
of the conference alone.

The conference is focused on the changing character of the publishing
industry. Tools of Change (TOC - also an abbreviation of course for
Table of Contents) is there for the publishing industry itself to ponder
how it will survive the fast moving changes occurring all around it. I
am very much an outsider from the traditional publishing industry having
had no role in the processes other than my involvement in FM and a
student newspaper when I was at University. 

So it was interesting for me to come to this conference through my
involvement with FLOSS Manuals and see it through a relatively naive
lens. 

On entering the conference I had a hazy idea that the publishing
industry was confused and perhaps a little panic striken. I also
contemplated how OReilly had, in a way, moved its own game from
publishing to conferences. Im not sure how much of a move OReilly has
made in terms of its revenue etc but at least on the outside the company
seems to be doing very well organising conferences about publishing, and
appears to be doing less well actually publishing. But this is just a
guess.

There was about 1000 people at this conf.

The conference was held at the Mariott Marquis in Times Square. So I
started my first day drinking coffee on the 8th floor overlooking giant
animated billboards and Times Square. The night before I was drinking
warm beer and eating cold pizza, it was a contrast that made me laugh.

So, Day 1. I really had to drag myself out of bed after 3 days of a long
haul FLOSSify sprint but I didn't want to miss a thing. I'm glad I did
it. The first day was workshops about a variety of topics. I decided to
attend the copyright workshop although I knew it was going to be very
US-centric and very pro-copyright. 

Dru Zuretti and Chris Kenneally did a weird kind of tag team
presentation. Dru stood at the front falling short with the jokes, while
Chris backed her humourlessness up. With only one coffee in me I
wondered if I had made the right decision. However things soon picked up
and I learned a great deal about US copyright law and general copyright
principles. Here are some things I noted - probably most of this is not
new to many but I'll leave it to you to scroll down if it seems a bit
basic...

First, there is no international copyright laws, however copyright
governance internationally relies on treaties. Copyright is a subset of
Intellectual Property (IP) and its siblings include Trademarks, Patents,
and Trade Secrets. 

Trademarks are often confused with copyright. TM is, in the words of
Dru, a 'consumer protection law'. In the US you must put a 'TM'  next to
your trademark if you have not registered the Trade Mark. If you do this
then the Trade Mark is protected. However if you register the Trade Mark
you must put an 'R' in a circle next to the Trade Mark - this notifies
the observer that the mark is registered. A Trade Mark lasts forever in
the US.

Patents last 20 years. Drugs can be patented for an extra 5 years. Once
a patent is expired it is public. To get a patent you must register an
idea with the patent office that is :
* novel
* not obvious
* and useful

A patent has to go through an vetting process ie. it is not inevitable
that you will get one upon application.

Trade Secrets are interesting because in the US they are pretty useless.
A Trade Secret lasts forever. A Trade Secret is for protecting business
information. If the business secret becomes known the Trade Secret
expires automatically. You do not register a Trade Secret, Nor does
anyone know what your Trade Secret is. The question must be then - what
does protection of a Trade Secret actually mean?

Interestingly, in France you do register a Trade Secret and the contents
of the secret are put into an envelope. If someone violates your secret
the court can arbitrate by opening the envelope and comparing notes.

So...onto the other form of IP that we were here to learn about -
copyright. Copyright law is actually written into Article 1 of the US
constitution with the beginning rationale that it is there to :
"...promote the progress of science and the useful arts by
protection..."

US copyright protects material that :
* has original authorship
* is in a fixed and tangible form
* is published or unpublished

It grants the owner of the copyright exclusive rights.

The need for something to be fixed is very interesting as it is not
possible to copyright improvisational works. Improv jazz performances do
not fall under copyright.

Copyright is not always conveyed to the author. If you commission a work
then the person paying the bills owns the copyright. Often copyright is
also transferred as in the case of the publishing industry where many
authors transfer their copyright to the publisher. However it is often
the case in the publishing industry that authors dont actually know who
owns their content and this can sometimes get them in trouble.

Content belongs to the Public Domain when it is not copyrighted. This
usually occurs when copyright expires, the material was never protected,
or the it is gifted to the public domain.

Copyright protects :
* reproduction
* distribution
* creation of derivative works
* public performance
* public display

Often these lead to bizarre situations. If you buy a statue for example,
you do not own the copyright (unless specifically negotiated which is
unusual). The copyright remains with the author. You in esssence buy the
right to display that object in your own residence. However you may not
put the statue into a public area where it might be view by others (ie.
Public Display). If you want to put in the public area you need the
permission of the sculptor.

The right to stop Public Display and the right to stop distribution are
the two protections of copyright used to try and stop books being
distributed online. Amazons display of covers of books, for example, is
considered Public Display.

Copyrights protection of distribution means that if you forward the
content of an email that someone has sent you then you violate copyright
law.

The copyright owner can determine how to transfer these rights to
others. They can do this in any manner they please and under whatever
terms they desire.

Rights are conferred as either :
*Exclusive or
* Non-Exclusive

An Exclusive transferal of rights requires a contract. Non-Exclusive
rights can be verbally agreed.

You do not have to register a work to own its copyright.You also don't
need to put a (c) near the work however its a good idea to do so if you
wish to protect your copyrights.

Duration of copyright in the US is the life of the author plus 10 years.
For 'works for hire' (you commission someone to do work and you then own
the copyright) the duration is 95 years from public display or 120 years
from creation.

Works created before 1923 are in the public domain. 

Dru was very forward in her beliefs that copyright does not work well in
the era of digital media. I found this refreshing.

Chris then got up an played some silly video. He then got going and
gradually became more interesting. Chris talked about the Digital
Millenium Copyright Act and how this provides safe harbour for ISPs
(Internet Service Providers). The DMCA also makes it an offense to
circumvent anti-pirating measures.

Interestingly...it seems that the USA is looking to IP to help dig its
way out of this recession. 19% of the USAs GDP is IP. Hence the US is
looking to step up anti pirating measures, and bring in heavier
penalties. This will be overseen by the first US Copyright Czar. Go
Obama.

It seems copyright has moved from protecting the author and artist to
protecting the economy and business models (surprise!). It also seems
the US will step up its game to protect its Creative Economy.

It looks like even copyright lawyers believe that copyright is there to
protect the industry and not the author. So what does it mean for the
publishing industry if copyright doesn't work well with digital media
and it protects industry business models that are becoming increasingly
outmoded...

Interesting days...

Next up...All About Print On Demand (PoD). This session was boring. It
was a bit weird too with the presenter making out like the print
industry is terrified of print on demand. It might well be, but the
point was over laboured. 

This tone was repeated throughout the conference - publishers being
scared. I am not sure I met any scared publishers throughout the 3 days,
but I wasn't really looking for them. I did meet a few that were simply
confused, and as the saying goes "If you are confused you are beginning
to understand the situation". The publishing industry is in a huge state
of flux, with reading and writing habits and contexts changing,
technologies changing, formats, DRM, free content etc etc etc...so I
would expect confusion to be the norm. However, having said that, it
does seem that along with the confusion comes rigid business models that
have invested in production processes and revenues models that are
starting to fail. The need to adapt is obvious, but not many know how. 

One simple illustration of this came during this session on PoD - the
session went through all the basics of PoD, and PoD really shares more
in common with the digital media industries than the traditional print
industries. PoD enables the production of books in units of 1. Each copy
can then be changed, personalised, adapted, improved etc, so the
processes tie into the fluid evolution of content which is native to the
digital world. However, the publishing industry deals with static
unmoving content - write a book, edit it, print a zillion copies, if its
a successful book then do the whole thing again with a different cover.
Its a long and statuesque processes. Graceful but slow. The very first
question that came from the audience in this session was 'So, if I
publish a book with PoD what is the Edition?'...bingo...a confused
publisher - confused because he was just beginning to understand the
problem, and possibly about to realise his productive processes and
workflow, business model - his industry - cannot work within this model
without radical change.

A list of print on demand companies was listed which included : Shared
Books, Bookmobile, BookSurge, Colorcentric, ePac, Edwards, Sheridan, and
Lightening Source. Interestingly the presenter did not point out
lulu.com.

Of interest were some experiments customising print runs. The example
shown was with a childrens book - you could enter your childs name into
a web form when you ordered the book and then the book replaced all
occurrences of the heros name with your kids name. Basic but
interesting.

So...that was the end of Day One. There was expensive drinks at the
Zanzibar afterwards but I felt it necessary to skip out at the end of
the day for some much needed rest...tomorrow I needed to be alert for
the first full day of the real conference...Before then however, I
caught a cab to Eyebeam to get the 10 copies of "How to Bypass Internet
Censorship" I ordered for the conf and had to delivered to Michael
Mandiberg @ Eyebeam. It was the first time I had seen a copy - they look
beautiful!

The next morning I crawled out of bed and made my way towards the 8.30
deadline for bagel and coffee 1 hr away in Times Square. Somehow I had
screwed up my leg and couldnt walk very well, i have no idea how I did
it, but the result was it slowed me down and I missed my brekky.
Thankfully however, I was there just as Bob Stein was starting his
keynote. Bob Stein is a long time innovator and thinker, having hung out
at MIT with Marvin Minksky, done various innovations himself and then
founded The Future of the Book Institute
(http://www.futureofthebook.org/). I met Bob before when I made my way
to the FotB in Brooklyn last year to introduce myself and FLOSS Manuals.
I had made my appointment with Ben Vershbow (who I also later met at
TOC) and Bob happened to be in the office. It was apparent by their
wonderful openness and their roaming and fascinating banter that they
are people inspired by what they do. That feeling also came across in
Bobs keynote presentation. Frankly I was surprised to see Bob opening
the event, not because it was the wrong choice, but because it was
exactly the RIGHT choice - to bring Bob in to start up what is
essentially a commercial conference means someone in the curatorial team
was thinking.

There is a bit online about Bob, I found this curious reference in Wired
(1996) : http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.07/stein_pr.html

So, he started with talking a little about his time at MIT and seeing a
demo of a screen with a text on it - MIT having invented Anti-aliasing
text - the text on the screen had links and when you clicked on
particular references then a video would play in a box next to the text
to give a demonstration of that point in sound and moving
image....1980...phew...

This influenced Bobs idea of what publishing was for that time. He saw
publishing not as an industry of book creation but of producing material
that people absorbed in isolation. Broadcasting was, on the other hand,
a shared media experience. A TV show was broadcasting therefore, and
putting a tape into a video player was a result of the publishing
process.

Within this era Bob was involved with the development of Criterion
Digital Books. Criterions logo was one of a book turning into a
disc...interesting insight for that time....later Bobs ideas where
influenced by the network. However as an overlying construct, Bob now
saw 'books' as how "we move ideas around time and space". 

In the network era Bob started The Future of the Book Institute as a
think tank. The institute also affiliated with various book experiments
including McKenzie Walks GAM3R 7H30RY. Bob also worked on a number of
projects within the Inistitute which have a utility outside of the
purely experimental - Comment Press
(http://www.futureofthebook.org/commentpress/about/) is one such
project. 

What I liked very much about Bobs presentation was the sublime big
picture synopses he can give and then change gears and give insights
into subtleties. So while talking about how the context of the reader
has changed, and discussing that reading is now very much a social
experience, Bob also underlined how Comment Press blew him away when
they moved the reader comments from being positioned below the main text
on the webpage to being at the same level as the main text. This changed
the dynamic of the reader-author relationship considerably and, if I
understood him right, improved the number and type of contributions.

Next the presentation roamed into the context of reading. Bob believes
that printed books effectively hide the social experience. Reading in a
networked environment exposes this social experience.

Now Bob has progressed his thoughts on 'the book' as "a place where
readers and sometimes authors congregate". He also believes that the
future will see the development of reading within a social context -
this he believes will change everything - "the principle role of the
publisher in the future is to build and nurture vibrant communities for
authors and their readers".  On this point I discovered over the course
of the 3 days that publishers hardly ever engage with a readership
online - they very much leave the development of the books or authors
website and the fostering of online readership communities to the
authors themselves. Most publishers put a book out and leave the selling
to the book to the writer. Michael Mandiberg, one of the authors of
Digital Foundations, confirmed this with the discussions I have had with
him over the last week. That means that if you agree with Bob, and I do
(although I would say that writing is now also becoming social), then
publishers have shut themselves out of one of the biggest tools to the
survival of their business, effectively giving the keys of the kingdom
to the author - what happens when the author realises, as many have
already, that with PoD and digital distribution, that they actually
don't need the publisher? 

So he sees publishing as moving its emphasis from books to people - I
agree with this but I'm curious to know how much Bob sees this change as
being on the reading side, and how much occurs on the authoring side, or
whether the two will collapse into one.

Bob was also quick to point out that we are just at the beginning of
this sea change. It took the publishing industry 70 years to realise
that page numbers would be handy...how long will it take us to work out
what is really going on and what will work and what won't? 

He also went on to say that he sees books as products of machines. Now
however they have transitioned from a material entity to a networked
entity. Publishing in the age of the network, makes literature a web
service. Books are now about networked people and networked words.

Overall a very interesting presentation. There are some interesting
issues raised here that Tim OReilly later addressed and I also had a
very interesting discussion with Gabriella Coleman about academic
publishers. Both of these people saw the role of the publisher as
conveying status. Tim OReilly saw his role as a high profile net
personage as largely playing the role of conveying status upon
particular authors and books. It was refreshing to hear someone talk
like this without pretense. When you have a platform like Lulu, which is
not a publisher but a platform upon which authors publish their own
books, then how do you know which are good? There are some ways for
doing this which Lulu provides - such as reader reviews, and we all know
the power of Amazons 'other readers also brought this' strategy. Tim
OReilly added to this the ability to convey status, and this was also
something that Gabriella talked about within the realm of academia. If a
book is networked, can be copied, changed, and freely distributed, then
how do Universities 'sanction' specific publications? This is an
extremely important part of the academic machine and one which they will
not easily give away. To me I don't see that publishing as it exists
will die, however some bits will die while other parts will be extended
and new processes will evolve. I think the ability to 'convey status'
will hang around. although the method and source might change.

After the presentation I saw Bob Stein in the foyer and gave him one of
the 10 copies of Bypassing Internet Censorship. He got a call and
hurried away. The next day he came up to me during a coffee break and he
had read the book cover to cover! What a guy! His compliments were
wonderful. First he said he didnt expect to enjoy it but he enjoyed it
very much. What really struck him was the respect the text had for the
reader, taking them through a complex process with clear information and
structured in a very easy to read way. Coming from him I think the Book
Sprint crew can take that as a huge compliment!

Actually giving the books away were quite an interesting process. I gave
one each to Tim OReilly, Cory Doctorow, Bob Stein, Mark Brokering (from
Safari books), and Bob Young (CEO of lulu). After those 5 big wigs I
only had 5 left, and one I wanted to give to the FSF. So my strategy was
to give a book to someone if they were interested in what we do and if
they obviously appreciated the beautiful object. I am glad I put that
last filter in, as I only gave the books to people that really responded
to them. One of the nicest moments was when I found myself drinking
coffee with Nina Paley (film maker, did the finishing keynote on the
last day) and she almost jumped out of her seat and shouted across the
table how beautiful the book looked! She got a copy immediately!

...stay tuned for the next exciting episode "TOC part 2 : DRM and Dog
People"...

adam





-- 
Adam Hyde
Founder FLOSS Manuals
German mobile : + 49 15 2230 54563
Email : adam at flossmanuals.net

"Free manuals for free software"
http://www.flossmanuals.net/about