Association of American Publishers

Last updated

The Association of American Publishers (AAP) is the national trade association of the American book publishing industry. AAP lobbies for book, journal and education publishers in the United States. AAP members include most of the major commercial publishers in the United States, as well as smaller and nonprofit publishers, university presses, and scholarly societies.[ not verified in body ]

Contents

Patricia Schroeder, a former United States representative, served as the association's CEO from 1997 until 2009, taking over the role from Nicholas A. Veliotes. On May 1, 2009, another former United States representative, Tom Allen, took over as president and CEO. In January 2017, Maria Pallante, a former United States Register of Copyrights, became the president and CEO of the organization. [1] [ non-primary source needed ]

Activities

The association's core programs deal primarily with advocacy related to: intellectual property; new technology and digital issues of concern to publishers; the freedom to read, censorship and libel; the freedom to publish; funding for education and libraries; postal rates and regulations; tax and trade policy; and international copyright enforcement.[ citation needed ]

AAP tracks publisher revenue on a monthly and annual basis with its StatShot programs. [2] [ non-primary source needed ] The association has also awarded books, journals, and electronic content through its annual PROSE Awards since 1976. [3] [ non-primary source needed ]

In August 2019, AAP sued Audible for its Captions feature, through which machine-generated text could be displayed alongside audio narration. [4] [5] The lawsuit was settled in February 2020, with Audible agreeing not to implement the Captions feature without obtaining express permission. [6]

Controversies

The AAP initially supported the arrest of Dmitry Sklyarov. [7]

AAP was criticized after it contracted Eric Dezenhall's crisis management firm to promote its position regarding the open access movement. [8] [9] Schroeder told The Washington Post “the association hired Dezenhall when members realized they needed help. ‘We thought we were angels for a long time and we didn't need PR firms.’” [10]

In 2020, AAP released press statements to support four of its members in the case of Hachette v. Internet Archive (IA). President Maria Pallante said of the case, "As the complaint outlines, by illegally copying and distributing online a stunning number of literary works each day, IA displays an abandon shared only by the world’s most egregious pirate sites." [11] [ non-primary source needed ] This action was opposed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, [12] [ non-primary source needed ] Public Knowledge, [13] [ non-primary source needed ] and the Association of Research Libraries. [14] [ non-primary source needed ]

See also

Related Research Articles

John Wiley & Sons, Inc., commonly known as Wiley, is an American multinational publishing company that focuses on academic publishing and instructional materials. The company was founded in 1807 and produces books, journals, and encyclopedias, in print and electronically, as well as online products and services, training materials, and educational materials for undergraduate, graduate, and continuing education students.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Audible (service)</span> Online audiobook and podcast service

Audible is an American online audiobook and podcast service that allows users to purchase and stream audiobooks and other forms of spoken word content. This content can be purchased individually or under a subscription model where the user receives "credits" that can be redeemed for content monthly and receive access to a curated on-demand library of content. Audible is the United States' largest audiobook producer and retailer. The service is owned by Audible, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Amazon.com, Inc., headquartered in Newark, New Jersey.

Thomas Nelson is a publishing firm that began in West Bow, Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1798, as the namesake of its founder. It is a subsidiary of HarperCollins, the publishing unit of News Corp. It describes itself as a "world leading publisher and provider of Christian content".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Open Library</span> Online project for book data of the Internet Archive

Open Library is an online project intended to create "one web page for every book ever published". Created by Aaron Swartz, Brewster Kahle, Alexis Rossi, Anand Chitipothu, and Rebecca Hargrave Malamud, Open Library is a project of the Internet Archive, a nonprofit organization. It has been funded in part by grants from the California State Library and the Kahle/Austin Foundation. Open Library provides online digital copies in multiple formats, created from images of many public domain, out-of-print, and in-print books.

<i>United States v. Elcom Ltd.</i> Copyright case between Dmitry and Elcomsoft

United States v. ElcomSoft and Dmitry Sklyarov was a 2001–2002 criminal case in which Dmitry Sklyarov and his employer ElcomSoft were charged with alleged violation of the DMCA. The case raised some concerns of civil rights and legal process in the United States, and ended in the charges against Sklyarov dropped and Elcomsoft ruled not guilty under the applicable jurisdiction.

The WIPO Copyright and Performances and Phonograms Treaties Implementation Act, is a part of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), a 1998 U.S. law. It has two major portions, Section 102, which implements the requirements of the WIPO Copyright Treaty, and Section 103, which arguably provides additional protection against the circumvention of copy prevention systems and prohibits the removal of copyright management information.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Recording Industry Association of America</span> Trade organization in the U.S.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/or distribute approximately 85% of all legally sold recorded music in the United States". RIAA is headquartered in Washington, D.C.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Digital Millennium Copyright Act</span> United States copyright law

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a 1998 United States copyright law that implements two 1996 treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). It criminalizes production and dissemination of technology, devices, or services intended to circumvent measures that control access to copyrighted works. It also criminalizes the act of circumventing an access control, whether or not there is actual infringement of copyright itself. In addition, the DMCA heightens the penalties for copyright infringement on the Internet. Passed on October 12, 1998, by a unanimous vote in the United States Senate and signed into law by President Bill Clinton on October 28, 1998, the DMCA amended Title 17 of the United States Code to extend the reach of copyright, while limiting the liability of the providers of online services for copyright infringement by their users.

<i>Authors Guild, Inc. v. Google, Inc.</i> U.S. copyright law case, 2015

Authors Guild v. Google 804 F.3d 202 was a copyright case heard in federal court for the Southern District of New York, and then the Second Circuit Court of Appeals between 2005 and 2015. It concerned fair use in copyright law and the transformation of printed copyrighted books into an online searchable database through scanning and digitization. It centered on the legality of the Google Book Search Library Partner project that had been launched in 2003.

Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) is a U.S. company based in Danvers, Massachusetts,, that provides collective copyright licensing services for corporate and academic users of copyrighted materials. CCC procures agreements with rightsholders, primarily academic publishers, and then acts as their agent in arranging collective licensing for institutions and one-time licensing for document delivery services, coursepacks, and other access and uses of texts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Copyright troll</span> Party that enforces copyrights for purposes of making money through litigation

A copyright troll is a party that enforces copyrights it owns for purposes of making money through strategic litigation, in a manner considered unduly aggressive or opportunistic, sometimes without producing or licensing the works it owns for paid distribution. Critics object to the activity because they believe it does not encourage the production of creative works, but instead makes money through the inequities and unintended consequences of high statutory damages provisions in copyright laws intended to encourage creation of such works.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maria Pallante</span> 12th United States Register of Copyrights and attorney

Maria A. Pallante is the president and chief executive officer of the Association of American Publishers, a publishing industry trade association. Pallante is an American attorney who previously served as the 12th United States Register of Copyrights. She was appointed acting register effective January 1, 2011, succeeding Marybeth Peters, who retired effective December 31, 2010. On June 1, 2011, she was appointed to the position which was intended to be permanent.

<i>Cambridge University Press v. Patton</i> American copyright case law

Cambridge University Press et al. v. Patton et al., 1:2008cv01425, was a case in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia in which three publishers, Cambridge University Press, SAGE Publications, and Oxford University Press, initially filed suit in 2008 against Georgia State University for copyright infringement.

Ticketmaster Corp., et al. v. Tickets.Com, Inc. was a 2000 case by the United States District Court for the Central District of California finding that deep linking did not violate the Copyright Act of 1976 because it did not involve direct copying. The decision permitted Tickets.com to place deep links to Ticketmaster.

Rightscorp. Inc is a Los-Angeles based copyright enforcement company, which locates alleged copyright violators and collects money from legal damages as well as out of court settlements on behalf of the copyright holder(s). Rightscorp manages copyrights of videos, music, and video games.

<i>Warner/Chappell Music Inc. v. Fullscreen Inc.</i>

Warner/Chappell Music Inc. et al. v. Fullscreen Inc. et al. (13-cv-05472) was a case against multi-channel network Fullscreen, filed by the National Music Publishers Association on behalf of Warner/Chappell Music and 15 other music publishers, which alleged that Fullscreen illegally reaped the profits of unlicensed cover videos on YouTube without paying any royalties to the rightful publishers and songwriters.

Google has been involved in multiple lawsuits over issues such as privacy, advertising, intellectual property and various Google services such as Google Books and YouTube. The company's legal department expanded from one to nearly 100 lawyers in the first five years of business, and by 2014 had grown to around 400 lawyers. Google's Chief Legal Officer is Senior Vice President of Corporate Development David Drummond.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Music Modernization Act</span> United States copyright law

The Orrin G. Hatch–Bob Goodlatte Music Modernization Act, or Music Modernization Act or MMA is United States legislation signed into law on October 11, 2018, aimed to modernize copyright-related issues for music and audio recordings due to new forms of technology such as digital streaming. It is a consolidation of three separate bills introduced during the 115th United States Congress.

Oppenheim + Zebrak is a United States law firm specializing in copyright infringement and anti-piracy. The firm was founded in 2011 by Matt Oppenheim and Scott Zebrak and is based in Tenleytown, Washington, DC.

<i>Hachette v. Internet Archive</i> 2023 American court case

Hachette Book Group, Inc. v. Internet Archive, No. 20-cv-4160 (JGK), 664 F.Supp.3d 370, WL 2623787, is a case in which the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York determined that the Internet Archive, a registered library, committed copyright infringement by scanning and lending complete copies of books through controlled digital lending mechanisms. Stemming from the creation of the National Emergency Library (NEL) during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, publishing companies Hachette Book Group, Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, and Wiley alleged that the Internet Archive's Open Library and National Emergency Library facilitated copyright infringement. The case primarily concerns the fair use of controlled digital lending (CDL) of complete copies of certain books. The case does not concern the display of short passages, limited page views, search results, books out of copyright or out of print, or books without an ebook version currently for sale.

References

  1. "The Association of American Publishers (AAP) Names Maria A. Pallante as President and CEO". January 12, 2017. Archived from the original on January 16, 2017. Retrieved February 17, 2021.
  2. "Industry Statistics: Overview". Association of American Publishers. Archived from the original on October 8, 2018. Retrieved August 30, 2021.
  3. "Home - PROSE Awards". PROSE Awards. Retrieved October 8, 2018.
  4. "American Publishers Sue To Stop 'Audible Captions'". Publishing Perspectives. August 24, 2019. Retrieved September 25, 2021.
  5. Lee, Timothy B. (August 24, 2019). "Book publishers sue Audible to stop new speech-to-text feature". Ars Technica. Retrieved September 25, 2021.
  6. "Copyright: US Publishers Succeed in 'Audible Captions' Case". Publishing Perspectives. February 7, 2020. Retrieved September 25, 2021.
  7. Ardito, Stephanie (November 2001). "The Case of Dmitry Sklyarov: This is the first criminal lawsuit under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act". Information Today . Retrieved July 24, 2024. Witness the July 19 statement from the Association of American Publishers (AAP) 'hailing' the actions of the Justice Department regarding the Sklyarov case.
  8. Giles, Jim (January 25, 2007). "PR's 'pit bull' takes on open access. Journal publishers lock horns with free-information movement". Nature. 445 (7126). Nature Publishing Group: 347. doi: 10.1038/445347a . PMID   17251943.
  9. David Biello (January 26, 2007). "Open Access to Science Under Attack". Scientific American . Retrieved February 2, 2007.
  10. Rick Weiss, Publishing Group Hires 'Pit Bull of PR' , The Washington Post . January 25, 2007
  11. "Publishers File Suit Against Internet Archive for Systematic Mass Scanning and Distribution of Literary Works". Association of American Publishers. June 1, 2020. Retrieved March 19, 2023.
  12. "Hachette v. Internet Archive". Electronic Frontier Foundation. October 9, 2020. Retrieved March 19, 2023.
  13. Stella, Shiva (June 1, 2020). "Public Knowledge Responds to Lawsuit Against Internet Archive: Policymakers, Publishers, and Libraries Should Make Print Books More Accessible During the Pandemic". Public Knowledge. Retrieved March 19, 2023.
  14. @ARLnews (June 4, 2020). "ARL is disappointed, especially this week, at this time, to see "preeminent publishing houses" go after controlled digital lending (CDL) so broadly in their complaint against the @InternetArchive. https://bit.ly/302LIp4 1/3" (Tweet) via Twitter.