Posts (page 2)

For those who are interested in copyright, please read John Lanchester article entitled "Who owns the digital age", published by the Guardian, last Saturday (07/IV/VII). His article is full of anecdocts and cases which are part of the history of Copyright, such as Peggy Lee and Disney, Disney and the US Copyright law, digitalisation and libraries...

This week, the French national Theatre, la Comédie Française faced an unusual situation. This season, the Theater planned to play Bernard-Marie Koltes'l Le retour au désert, under the direction of Muriel Mayette who is also the recent chief of the national Company. But, the heir (the brother) of the author claimed to he would prevent it from June onwards because of the cast : one of the character is played by a French native actor and not by an Algerian one, as originally wished by the author. Letting the cast as it is would be violating the moral right of his brother said the heir.
 La Comédie Française organized a meeting last week-end to explain its position.
Legally speaking, the justification for using a moral right to prevent the use of a Work is the cast and the origin of an actor. Where is the limit ? An author can really justify his position by a color of skin of an actor/singer, or his religion ?
 

The new name of what was formerly known as Warner book has been announced today. This change is due to its new owner, Hachette. It reflects the new location of the Publishing House that is to move to Grand Central Terminal, Manhattan. The official launching of this new identity will be done at Book Expo America, next June.

I went through the Guardian (Friday March 23th) and learnt that Wordsworht edition decided to enhance the portrait of Jane Austen to illustrate her books. The traditional portrat painted by her sister Cassandra has been "modernised"  to make the best-seller author less "plain". Thanks to technology her hair is now longer, she does not wear this night cap any more and she was given a make-up...

The Paris Book fair opened last week. This was an occasion for series of articles about French Publishing industries on newspapers. I had a look on several articles (not an exhaustive look i have to confess). But nevertheless, I went through economical pages, literary supplements and general information. Once again, I am reading the same articles years after years. The same studies are done : Hachette is still the leader of publishing industry; more and more bokks are published every year whereas the sector is not at its best; times are difficult for publishers and bookshops because of September 11th, the soccer world cup or the olympic games or whatever... and of course the Internet.
 
But I am still looking for deeper anlysises : what makes Hachette the leader : its international implementation, its presence in entertainment in general and not books only ? Can a national based entertainer industry possible ?
The FNAC has recently stopped according the 5% reduction on books (the maximum authorised by Law) to every customers like they used to. What does it mean ? Are they facing strong difficulties with their bookshops ? Are only books concerned or is it general ?

And concerning the internet and the literary world, it is now turning into a laughing stock matter. French independant bookshop are "beginning" to organise a national platform for ditributing book through internet, realising that it will allow easier to satisfy the customer with a much bigger stock of books. Hey, guys : we are in 2007 !!!! Don't you think you are late ? Yes, it is proved now that internet is a mean for trade and  not a terrifying adversary.
Moreover the French Ministry of Culture "is thinking about organising" a label for independant bookshops as what was done for cinema theatres.  Why not ? But what is very reflecting of French isolation in this area is that in case of problem, the industry turns to the Ministry of Culture fand never to the Ministry of Economy, Industry or Trade ? Yes, Books are culture, nevertheless they are part of an industry, which means business, money and exchanges....

One of France best-sellers in 2006 was a book entitled Cahier de gribouillages pour les adultes qui s'ennuient au bureau by Claire Faÿ, published by Editions du Panama. The title can be approximately translated by "Notebook of scribbles for adults who are bored at the office".
But as its explicit French title says it is not a book but a notebook. It consists in little funny exercices, sentences to write, drawings to be done at the office when of course, you are bored. It is not a novel, it is not an essay, it is not a comic book, it is just different.
Its author was one of the 30 first authors of best sellers last year. 

A Court of Los Angeles County decided that the rights of O.J.Simpson's "book" , If I did it, were to be sold in auction and that the revenue of this sale were to be given to the family of one of the victim, Ronald Goldman .
This book was to be published by Harper and Collins. At the end of 2006, the company decided to call this publication off and to fire the publisher of the book, Ms. Regan. But, the original contract between Simpson and Harper &Collins stipulated that next May, the rights would be reverted to a company named Lorraine Brooke. The lawyers of the father of one of the victim claimed that this was nothing but a way for Mr. Simspon to get his royalties back.
By this decision, the Judge prevents Mr. Simpson to get any money from any publication of this book. The best bidder will win the auction and royalties reverted to Mr Goldman family. If no one is interested by this deal (which can reasonably be an issue) the lawyer of the latter said "the Goldmans will buy it and lock it up".

The shortlist of the Independant foreign fiction award has been announced. The nationalities represented are : Portuguese, Swedish, Greek, Spanish, German and Norwegian.
Is this list and the absence of French authors to be related with the previous post ?

And Andrew Wylie became the agent of three French writers....(Ch. Angot, F. Hartmann and Ph. Djian) Is it a only a beginning ? is it a test ?
The famous agent says he does not plan yet to open an office in Paris. This seems suffisant an explanation for Le Monde to conclude that no change is on its way.
So it is better to forget that Andrew Wylie has an office in London and that London is 2h20 to Paris (Thank you Eurostar!). Yes of course, this would be admitting that Paris is not the centre and the model of the literary world. Of course, St Germain des Prés is not the centre of the literary world but the center of the whole world some would say.
Anyway, the blindness (voluntary or not, I still wonder) of French publishing analysis is always surprising. Livres Hebdo website does not even mention the information whereas Galleycat does !

Today's New York Times indicates that Barnes and Noble might be taken over by Amazon.com   But nothing done, only speculations