Writing Article and Halloween Story

Halloween is nearly upon us. I found a cool article posted by someone on the Fantasy Writer's Facebook page concerning the effect that false complements have of a person's writing called "Beware The False Compliments That are Killing Your Writing."

 

Also, I'm putting a link to an old halloween story I wrote years ago called "Disease." Hope you enjoy.

Good Friday!

I've posted a new Riddle and Quote on my page at http://www.curtisberry.net.

Here is an interesting article from Black Literature Magazine featuring an interview with Author Balogun Ojetade. CLICK HERE

Judge Rules Against Author's Guilde in HathiTrust Lawsuit

Judge Rules Against Authors Guild in HathiTrust Lawsuit
Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware

On the heels of several publishers' secret settlement deal with Google in the long-running Google Books lawsuit, a judge has made a major ruling in another lawsuit over book scanning.

In September 2011, the Authors Guild, two international writers' groups, and several individual authors filed suit against a number of major US universities, challenging their aggregation of scans of in-copyright books into a repository called HathiTrust. The plaintiffs claimed that the scans--obtained from Google as part of the Google Books project--were unauthorized, because permission to scan had not first been sought from copyright holders. The universities argued that such digitization is fair use under US copyright law.

This week, Judge Harold Baer granted HathiTrust's motion for summary judgment, finding that the universities' digitization project was indeed fair use.

The full opinion is here. See also this analysis by law professor James Grimmelmann.

This is a major decision that has direct bearing on the Google Books lawsuit (although the publishers involved in the lawsuit settled, the Authors Guild is proceeding with litigation), since Google has always argued that its scanning is fair use. One major difference between Google and HathiTrust is that Google is a commercial enterprise, which wants to make money from the books it digitizes, and HathiTrust is not. But Grimmelmann, quoted in PW, feels that may not make a difference:

"This is a pretty serious blow to the Authors Guild....The fair use ruling is substantially applicable to Google: yes, Google is commercial, but the transformative use and market harm points stand, and that's enough for a solid fair use victory. This seems like an appropriate time for the Authors Guild to take stock of the litigation, ask what it's accomplished for authors, and consider what the consequences of pressing on would be."

For its part, the Authors Guild disagreed "nearly every aspect of the court's ruling." In a statement to members, it said:

"We're especially disappointed that the court refused to address the universities' "orphan works" program, which defendants have repeatedly promised to revive. A year ago, the University of Michigan and other defendants were poised to release their first wave of copyright-protected, digitized books to hundreds of thousands of students and faculty members in several states. The universities had deemed the authors of these books to be unfindable.

"Within two days of filing our lawsuit last September, Authors Guild members and staff found that the "orphans" included books that were still in print, books by living authors, books whose rights had been left to educational and charitable institutions in the U.S. and abroad, books represented by literary agents, and books by recently deceased authors whose heirs were easily locatable.

"The so-called orphan works program was quickly shown to be a haphazard mess, prompting Michigan to suspend it," said Paul Aiken, the Guild's executive director. "But the temptation to find reasons to release these digitized books clearly remains strong, and the university has consistently pledged to reinstate the orphan works program. The court's decision leaves authors around the world at risk of having their literary works distributed without legal authority or oversight."

The Guild says it is discussing its options, and will soon announce what further steps it intends to take.

Update to Riddle and Quote on CurtisBerry.net

I've updated the riddle and quote on the http://www.curtisberry.net page. I've also put a description of the origins of halloween there for people to enjoy.

Finalized Book Cover

Hey check out my final cover for the new book. Hope you enjoy!

Finalized artwork for front cover of new book

Ron Leary, Jr. had finished the artwork for my new book "Shades of Light: Book One of the Walker Chronicles." Check it out! I'll be adding title graphics shortly.

Ebook Settlement News

Interesting news article concerning ebook settlement.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/?nodeId=201046060

Udated the Curtis W. Berry Site with new Riddle and Quote

Enjoy!

Writing with Emotion

Writing with Emotion, an interesting article by Shirley Jump.

Google settles copyright lawsuit

Google and US publishers settle book copyright case. This is a very interesting story that affects writers everywhere

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/9587331/Google-and-US-publishers-settle-book-copyright-case.html

No comment?

How do you feel about censoring your own opinion on hot button issues as an author because you fear alienating readers? Is silence or wishy-washy the way to go? A author's image is significant. What do you think? Definitely a touchy issue because there are so many people out there who may enjoy an artist's work but will refuse to subscribe to it because of their differing on one subject or another.

Why Writers Disappear

I found a very interesting article called Why Writers Disappear by Kristine Kathryn Rusch that I wanted to share with you. http://kriswrites.com/2012/10/03/the-business-rusch-why-writers-disappear/

It's all about networking

Well I'm trying to go from thinking about it to doing it. I've finished a manuscript that I've been working on for some time and am now working on getting it out there for people to enjoy. I'll be posting back here soon and often. My website is complete, which is http://www.curtisberry.net. Let me know what you think.

c.