Devra Hall Levy | DevraDoWrite

Protecting the Digital Rights of Authors

The Authors Guild recently sent out a message to its members that should be of interest and concern to all Internet savvy people, not to mention all writers. The Guild, which has come out against Google’s Library Program, seems to have hope for the plans of a new coalition that includes Yahoo. The message said:

A coalition including Yahoo, Adobe Systems, Hewlett-Packard, and the libraries of the University of California and the University of Toronto announced today that they’re launching a book-scanning project that would make digitized texts searchable through Yahoo. Yahoo’s coalition took care to state that only works for which it has the rightsholders’ permission or are in the public domain would be included. Although we haven’t reviewed the details of the program yet, it sounds as though they’re going about this in a sensible way.

Yahoo’s new venture is further demonstration that the right to store books in digital form is commercially valuable, a right that should be licensed rather than appropriated.

The email also included a copy of a letter to the editor from Authors Guild President Nick Taylor, published by The New York Times, in response to an op-ed piece by Tim O’Reilly, a member of a Google advisory board and publisher of computer manuals who supports Google’s Library venture.

To the Editor:

Tim O’Reilly (“Search and Rescue,” Op-Ed, Sept. 28), who is on the publisher advisory board for Google Print, informs us of the many benefits of the Google Library program.

The program, which would digitize and store millions of books, has its merits, all of which can be achieved through proper licensing. Google knows its business; it expects to profit from this project. Certainly some of those profits should go to the authors who created the books.

By digitizing mountains of copyrighted books without permission, Google is exercising a renegade notion of eminent domain: Google decides what’s good for us and seizes private property to get it done.

Legitimate eminent domain is exercised by elected officials, however. And the property owners get paid.

There’s a better way: let’s build a real digital library, not just “snippets.” Writers are willing, but not at the cost of our rights.

Nick Taylor
President, Authors Guild
New York, Sept. 29, 2005

For further information, visit The Authors Guild.

And yesterday, in a e-newsletter I receive from Publishers Weekly, I read:

The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group has pulled the company’s titles from the Google Print program to protest the scanning of copyrighted materials in the Google Library program. RLPG president Jed Lyons called Google Library’s scanning policy a “flagarant violation” of copyright laws, and has told Google it wants the books that have been scanned as part of Google Print removed from its database and the books returned.

Scarecrow Press, the publisher of my Henderson biography in progress, is under the umbrella of Rowman & Littlefield.

New Words?

The reader who chided me (tongue-in-cheek) for using the word “derivated,” wrote in again to report:

“about 55,700” results you find when typing “derivated” into google! 🙂 Great Stuff! [see for yourself]

I haven’t checked, but I don’t think “derivated” made the new edition of the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. However, the M-W lexiographers have green-lighted a bunch of new entries — “Chick Flick,” “Civil Union,” “Bikini Wax” and “Brain Freeze” are now official dictionary entries. (Hmmm, is green light a verb?) Read about the new words here, or jump straight to A Sampling of New Words and Senses on the Merriam-Webster web site.

FANs Get The Last Word

Tuesday, in my FAN-tastic! post, I told you about two buddies, both fans of Nancy Wilson, one of whom just retired. I emailed them to say I had written about them without revealing their identities, offered to remove the posting if it made them uncomfortable in any way, or, conversely, identify them if they so desired. They opted for the latter, and said some very nice things in the process — Thanks, guys. You made my day, again.

Now I’m going to give them the last word. First from the new man of leisure, David Moss:

Thank you so much for posting my sentiments on your website. I feel even more honored and thrilled having communicated with you and Nancy. You are truly terrific personalities.

I started reading my book today and it brought back such wonderful memories of the great musicians I have always enjoyed and continue to listen to today. I actually have music on vinyl of many of the artists John managed. This is truly awesome – thanks again.

And by all means, please feel free to identify me on your website – I am a proud fan and want to share the love.

And from Dave’s really good friend Stan Skinner, the man who first contacted me to ask Ms. Wilson for a special favor:

We are honored!! By all means mention us. I was talking to Thelma [Dave’s wife] and we were both saying how good it was to know that people like you, John and Nancy who have played amongst the stars are still kind and thankful. You guys are the notes that create the harmony in this world.

One Ought…

“One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.”

RSVP

No, I’m not plugging RSVP: Rare Songs, Very Personal, Nancy Wilson’s last grammy-winning recording. I’m referring to the original meaning: Respondez S’il Vous Plait. “No news is good news” used to be true, but that has changed. The number of emails I send, and phone messages that I leave, that go unanswered grows exponentially each day. I used to think it was just plain rude (not to mention discourteous and bad for business) to not answer messages. Part of me still feels that way. I answer every communication I receive, even if it is to just to say “no” or “I don’t know” or “I’ll get back to you soon.” But I have to admit that doing so is taking up more and more of my time, leaving me less and less able to accomplish the myriad tasks on my to-do list. I know that I am not alone in this. I notice that even my own friends and business associates are hard pressed to keep up and respond in a timely fashion, if at all. But it just goes against my grain to blow someone off by not responding at all. I remain determined to respond, even if it take me a little longer than it used to. And if it’s blog-mail, I always reserve the right to repond publically in a DevraDoWrite “I’ve Got Mail” post.

FAN-tastic!

Fans make all sorts of requests of performers — from the simple “please send me an autographed picture” to the absurd, such as “Can you come to my husband’s surprise party and sing happy birthday?” Once in a while, however, a request touches me for one reason or another, and I try to make it happen. I’m not talking about the tear-jerker last-wish type of requests, just a simple request like the one I got recently from a man asking if Nancy Wilson would send a letter of retirement congratulations to his buddy who has been a lifelong fan. The man making the request said “It would be one of those special things in life that makes it all worthwhile,” and while he, too, was also a lifelong fan, he asked for nothing for himself. In fact, he added, “If this cannot be done, I will understand and we will still be loyal fans.”

I don’t know why, but I decided to call the guy and find out more about him and his friend. Long story short, the guy about to retire first saw Nancy at a New York club called The Blue Morocco — it was truly at the very beginning of her career. Years later, that same man got in line with a whole bunch of women at a shopping mall in Atlanta where Nancy was promoting a line of cosmetics. He really wanted that autograph, and he got it. I took note of a few more details and called Nancy. She sent the letter, along with two copies of Men Women and Girl Singers (one for the retiree and the other for the buddy who made the request).

I wish I could have been there to see their faces and hear the reaction, but I did get an email from the buddy making the request. He wrote:

I must tell you that the last few days have been one of those rare moments where I can say that life has a funny way of bringing a person back into the fold. The meaning of that takes me back to Music and Art High where I started playing Trombone and writing seriously. From there I played in various Army Bands and with various backup bands for great legends. This went on for 25+ years. I just jam with a few friends and sit in now and then.

Reading all about your husband and how he has been associated with all my favorites (especially the ones who used to play on the CTI label), has sparked a new musical interest. I do remember some things about him from Downbeat magazine and he definitely deserves the award coming up in January. John is just a legend himself!…I am just in awe to be in touch with such royalty!

I sincerely want to thank you again for your kindness and for being down to earth which are rare qualities these days. “You can easily judge the character of others by how they treat those who can do nothing for them or to them” — M. Forbes

I had never before read or heard that quote attributed to Malcolm Forbes, but you never know what impact your actions might have. For me, these are the moments that make it all worthwhile.

Addendum: After writing the above, I received an email from the retiree himself. He said, in part:

There were probably 100 guests at my retirement luncheon with various roast jokes and friendship testimonials … all wonderful. But you can only imagine how overwhelmed I was when [my friend] presented me with a letter from my absolutely most favorite performer Nancy Wilson. I was so surprised it took me a minute or two to come around. Then I was elated … This truly touched my heart … I will treasure these gifts always. Thank you for making me feel so honored and making my retirement celebration so special!

Cliched though it may be, it’s the little things that can make the biggest difference in someone else’s life. Who have you made happy today?

Surfs Up

I got this email from another tech friend:

I got a real kick out of your article of the 26th where you talked about urban legends, hoaxs, and well-meaning friends; you have no idea how much garbage I receive from less technical friends warning me of some impending disaster about to befall me or my computers, and I agree that research as to the truth or fiction of these warning is very important.

I especially enjoyed your closing phrase, “check them out before you flood the ethernet with more garbage”, and chuckled to myself at the thought of all these networked users running amok on the internet with no firewalls in place, allowing their “ethernets” to receive whatever the web dumps onto their systems! “Surfs ’em right”, I say!

And then he took me to task – tongue in cheek, I hope – for one of my made-up words:

What a hoot! In Caveat Lector Dictionaria/Encyclopedia, “Talk about derivated words. I feel betrayed.” Now *that’s* funny!

And he included an online dictionary link to here.

Scribble Scrabble

My friend Phil sent this to me because he knows that I like to play Scrabble. Also, he’s the Executive Director of Information Technology for the Pasadena Unified School District — computer code and internet, words and spelling — makes sense to me. Anyway, I come by the Scrabble affinity naturally as my mother is a Scrabble Queen. She even knows words that the English allow but are not found in our American Scrabble dictionaries. Many years ago Phil and I played a game of Scrabble with my mother, and all I had on hand was a regular dictionary. We doubted many of her words — jo comes to mind — but later found them all to be valid in the official Scrabble dictionary. She won, of course. I prefer to remember the day I beat Phil at Scrabble — I was in the hospital, dopey on pain killers….he must have let me win, but swears he didn’t. If you want to read up on the rules, go here, or visit The Official Worldwide Scrabble Home Page

Finally, A Signed Contract

On August 15th, in a post I wrote about Luther Henderson titled Why Him?, I wrote, “I am pleased to say that I have been offered a contract, am in negotiations right now, and hope to announce the signing very soon.” Actually, I knew back in June that the contract was coming, and it arrived in the mail in early July. Who knew negotiations would take so long?

Well I am now pleased to be able to announce that I have signed with Scarecrow Press to publish Seeking Harmony: The Life and Music of Luther Henderson. While this project is near and dear to my heart, the publishing industry powers that be did not foresee a commercial potential significant-enough to interest an agent, so I was left to my own devices. I had been shopping the proposal to various houses for ten months before Scarecrow exhibited interest. From then on it was back a forth negotiations between myself and the house editor regarding contract issues — a time-consuming process.

Of course, the original contract offered was to their advantage. Over the years I have gained a generally familiarity with book and record contracts, but not enough to know what is current industry standard for this genre. As for the process of negotiation, although I do seem to be good at it, I detest the basic construct. It’s like haggling over prices — why some people can fly first-class for the price of coach and others have to pay through the nose makes no sense to me from the consumer standpoint. Similarly, for two authors with roughly the same track record or similar projections for their books in similar genres to end up with far different royalty rates, for example, seems basically unfair. Still, that seems to be the way the game is played, so I needed to bone up on the rules and expectations.

Enter my knight on a white horse: The Authors Guild. I had written several technology trade books in that qualified me for Guild membership, but it was not until my post-cancer days when I began to think of myself as being a Writer with a capital W that I joined. The best benefit they offer (aside from medical insurance, which is no small thing) is their legal support. Any member can send them a publishing contract and receive back a lengthy written analysis indicating which clauses are in line with currently acceptable practices, and suggestions of what could be better. The Guild does not represent the author, but because they see contracts from all the houses, they are in a position to tell you with some authority what is happening in that world; that kind of knowledge is power in a negotiation. Of course, this is exactly what I don’t like — the idea that the company (be it publisher, record company….) tries to benefit from the artist’s or writer’s ignorance. But, as I said, that’s the way it is. So, thanks to The Guild, I was well-prepared.

The consultations are part of what made it so time consuming, plus we did it all in writing — nothing by phone. The publisher sent me a contract. I sent it to The Guild, they responded to me, and I in turn wrote a long letter to the publisher (my house editor) addressing each and every contract clause. I imagine that the editor had to discuss my requests (I never demanded) with “the publisher” and/or the legal department, then prepare a counter offer and send it to me. Then we started all over again, with me going back to The Guild, countering their counter and so on.

One of the clauses I felt strongly about changing was the one prohibiting me from directly selling any copies of the book. From my experience with my last book, Men, Women, and Girl Singers, I know that I can personally sell lots of copies at private parties, jazz concerts, and speaking engagements for schools and organizations. The people at these events are people who buy on impulse, and because I am there. I suggested that unlike the Monterey Jazz Festival where we had our wonderful experience selling the book through the Tower Records booth, my making these types of event-based sales was clearly not in competition with their retail channels. I wrote, “Why should you and I both lose out on such sales? It seems like a win-win situation to me. ” And they agreed.

To me, this is the epitome of a good working relationship, and while I am no expert, I suspect that pursuit of win-win situations may be the key to productive negotiations. I have to say, and did say to my editor, that while the process may have taken longer than I had anticipated, the editor’s pleasant and professional demeanor made it relatively painless. Did I get everything I wanted? Of course not, but I’m not an already-famous writer, and my subject is not Elvis. Still, I will make out alright in the long run if you all buy the book when it comes out and then recommend it to your friends. I’ll give you an advance peek now and then to whet your appetite, so all I ask is that you keep visiting me here at DevraDoWrite.com.

More Disappointment

I had dinner with a friend last night who told me that she, too, had seen and enjoyed Winged Migration. But then she told me she had been dismayed to find out that the makers of the film manipulated the birds and staged everything. Apparently this was not a secret; it is detailed in the extras, the behind the scenes footage that they included on the DVD.

In all the press materials, and articles I can recall (without research), it was implied that this was truly an observational documentary — birds on their own turf, doing their own thing in their own time. I remember talk of the traditional and remote controlled gliders, Ultra Light Motorized aircraft, and other contraptions on which cameras were mounted to capture the ‘bird’s eye’ view (sorry for the pun, I couldn’t resist). Now I hear that the birds filmed were raised by (or maybe at the behest of) the filmmakers; transported to various locations, then filmed while being led to fly from point A to point B ; and that situations were staged.

I don’t condemn their methods (although I am not thrilled by the thought that they may have deliberately placed birds in the path of hunters), but I do condemn their deception. Just as I believe that nonfiction writers have an implied contract with their readers to disclose whether the account is completely accurate or whether they have taken any liberties (such as creating composite or fictional characters and invented dialogue), I also believe that documentary makers should be held to the same standards.

If you are a regular reader of DevraDoWrite (and I hope that you are) you know that this is one of my repeated refrains. See the last paragraph of this May 10th Caveat Lector post

P.S. Being that Capote, the movie, opens tomorrow, someone is bound to ask me about In Cold Blood. I loved the book…and then hated Capote when I found out, afterward, that he had actually made up scenes and created a fictional ending. If he had disclosed that up front, i could have applauded both his skill and his imagination. As for the issue of an author manipulating his or her subject(s) to get the story (as was apparently done by both Capote and the birders) that’s a complex can or worms I will tackle at another time.