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August
2001
Halloran
finally out of hospital
EAST LONGMEADOW,
Connecticut, August 1, 2001 -- TAA Council member Phil Halloran
returned home after a month in and out of the hospital. "Now I
am back to my same 'ol hell razin self," he said, dismissing his
ordeal as "this nonsense." Halloran, a math author, first went
"under the knife for what was supposed to be a rather simple --
if inconvenient -- procedure of having my gall bladder removed,"
he said. "After I got out of the hospital I was supposed to better
in three to five days. It didn't happen. I got sicker. I ended
up back in there only to find out I had four abscesses on my liver.
They needed to be drained. That took eight more days in the hospital
for the first drain, with yet another drain coming from my rib
cage."
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TAA Council
sets two-day June meeting
ST. PETERSBURG,
Florida, August 1, 2001 -- The June meeting of Text and Academic
Authors' governing board, the TAA Council, will span two days,
Executive Director Ron Pynn said. The Council will meet ahead
of the association's June 21-22 national convention. The meeting
will begin the afternoon of Wednesday, June 19, and contunue the
next morning. Thursday afternoon will be turned over to TAA's
new committees to work on reports, Pynn said. The Council also
meets in January in St. Petersburg.
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Government
to fund literacy research
WASHINGTON,
August 1, 2001 -- The U.S. secretary of education, Rod Paige,
pledged $50 million over five years to fund a research-based study
on improving literary development. The announcement was made a
White House Summit on literacy. The research will focus on cognitive
development activities for pre-school age children, Page said.
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Guild pressed
Times to ease "coercion"
NEW YORK,
August 2, 2001 -- The Authors Guild claimed its pressure on
the New York Times prompted the newspaper to drop its campaign
to remove freelance articles from electronic databases unless
the authors of those articles agreed to waive their rights to
compensation. The Times had been running print ads encouraging
writers to waive their rights. The Guild had called the ads "coercive."
Responding to the Guild complaints, the Times dropped the
ads and clarified a message on its web site to inform authors
who waive their rights that they could be jeopardizing their share
of a possible class-action settlement in a suit against the Times.
The Guild, meanwhile, is pursuing the class-action claim.
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Boise Cascade
threatens law authors
BOISE,
Idaho, August 3, 2001 -- Global timber company Boise Cascade
threatened "appropriate actions" against the authors of a law
review article that accused the company of reckless environmental
and degrading personnel practices abroad. Jeffrey Newmeyer, general
counsel for Boise Cascade, said the article lacked scholarship
and was inflammatory and also false in parts and constituted an
attack on Mormonism. Earlier the company pressured the University
of Denver to withdraw the article from its law journal web site.
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Boise Cascade
to scholars: Don't you dare
BOISE,
Idaho, August 3, 2001 -- In a letter to the authors who sued
the University of Denver for bowing under pressure from Boise
Cascade to retract their journal article on Boise Cascade's environmental
record in Mexico and elsewhere, Boise Cascade made it clear that
it would not tolerate republication of the authors' article as
is. In letter dated June 19, Boise Cascade general counsel Jeffrey
D. Newmeyer called statements made by the authors "false" and
insisted that the authors not republish the article in any form.
If they did, the company would take "appropriate actions" to stop
them, the letter said. The letter was addressed to the authors:
- William
Wines, a legal environment professor at Boise State University.
- Mark Buchanan,
an associate professor at Boise State.
- Donald
J. Smith, the Idaho field rep for Alliance for the Rockies.
Newmeyer and
said that the company was "gratified" that the University of Denver
stood by its decision to retract the article. The university was
contacted by Boise Cascade after the article appared in the Denver
Journal of International Law & Policy, a law review edited
by senior students at the University of Denver Law School. The
university responded by pulling the article off the Internet and
printing an apology in a subsequent issue of the printed journal.
The authors
then filed a libel suit against the University of Denver, claiming
that the retraction damaged their reputations as scholars. They
noted too that the university had never contacted them before
withdrawing the article. The suit has since been settled out of
court, with the university agreeing to apologize to the authors
and releasing the article back to them with the university's full
copyright clearance for them to submit the work elsewhere for
publication. The university, however, did not agree to restore
the article to the Internet.
Separately,
Boise Cascade, a global timber company, is pressuring the authors
through Newmeyer's letter not to republish the article.
Newmeyer objected
to more than the article's criticism of Boise Casacde's environmental
and personnel record abroad. He called the article a "religious
attack" on the Latter-Day Saints religion, saying certain individuals
were singled out in the article for being Mormon and with suggestions
of "evil motives" due to their religion. The "prejudicial statements"
and "intolerance" shown in the authors' article, said Newmeyer,
contribute to giving "the entire state of Idaho a black eye."
Idaho and Utah are the epicenter of Mormonism.
Said Newmeyer:
"The article's lack of scholarship, needlessly inflammatory language,
personal attacks, false content, religious and regional bias,
and lack of citation to authority all counsel that this article
should be extinguished once and for all."
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Options
for TAA's web, newsletter future
ST. PETERSBURG,
Florida, August 4, 2001 -- Options for continuing Text and
Academic Authors member service and communication programs were
laid out by Ron Pynn, executive director, for an executive committee
considering what to do. At issue is the TAA publications program
with the pending resignation of John Vivian, who wants more time
for his textbook writing. Pynn listed these options and their
budget implications:
- $25,000:
Continue the existing dynamic web site with its full news service,
including the spin-off Academic Author newsletter that is avialable
to members every second month. Most of the expense is for a
supervising editor, a newsletter editor, a desktop editor, several
reporters, and printing and postage. The web site has grown
to about 1,800 pages of news and information.
- $17,500:
Replace the dynamic web site and news service with a single,
static home page and two or three directories of information
about TAA. The Academic Author would go from six to 12 issues
a year.
- $3,000:
Replace the dynamic web site and news service with a static
web page and discontinue the Academic Author.
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Rights
group monitoring Boise Cascade
NEW YORK,
August 4, 2001 -- Human Rights Watch's academic program director,
Saman Zia-Zarifi, said the organization is still looking into
the retraction of a University of Denver law journal article due
to pressure from the global timber company Boise Cascade, which
was criticized in the article. Zia-Zarifi sees academic freedom
as the issue: "If academic artists can be subject to this kind
of pressure after an article appears, what happens to the articles
that most people never see?" He said also that he found it unusual
that database LEXIS-NEXIS would also agree to retract the article.
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Authors
wary of future for 68 books
BOSTON,
Massachusetts, August 5, 2001 -- The authors of 68 college
textbook top-sellers have no idea what's going to happen to their
works. Thomson, the giant Canada-based publishers, has been ordered
by the U.S. Justice Department to divest itself of the titles.
Many of the authors, according to a random TAA check, feel helpless.
Said philosophy author Daniel Bonevac: "They said that they hope
to take my interests into account as they pursue the issue." Will
Bonevac's interests concide with Thomson's? Time will tell. Some
authors were advised of the Justice Department's divestiture order
by phone, others by boilerplate letters. The divestiture order
was triggered by Thomson's acquisition of Harcourt titles that,
in the Justice Department's view, would give Thomson an uncompetitve
advantage.
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Authors
unsure on divested books' future
BOSTON,
Massachusetts, August 5, 2001 -- Several authors who will
be affected by the U.S. Justice Department's forced divestiture
of 68 titles from Thomson and Harcourt's college publishing lists
before the sale of Harcourt College Publishers to Thomson can
be finalized are worried about where their books will end up.
Philosophy
author Daniel Bonevac's Simple Logic, now published by
Harcourt, is on the list of divested titles. Bonevac said he is
concerned about the future of his book, but is also concerned
more broadly about what the consolidation means for the publishing
world in general, and for academic and textbook publishing in
particular: "I fear that we are moving to a world in which two
to four publishers will dominate everything, and that only books
with the widest possible appeal will be published at all."
Bonevac was
notified of the sale by letter. "They said that they hope to take
my interests into account as they pursue the issue," said Bonevac.
He has heard nothing in person from his editor.
Bonevac said
he would like to take some proactive measures to make sure his
book lands where it will get the attention it deserves, but doesn't
know how: "I don't know whether I have any control over this process
-- or even any input."
Music author
Thomas Benjamin's Music for Analysis: Examples from the Common
Practice, now published by Thomson, is also on the list of
divested titles. He and his coauthors Bob Nelson and Mike Horvit
"are very upset with the situation. Music for Analysis
is one of a highly integrated set of three texts, and all three
books will suffer pedagogically as well as commercially from this
development."
Philosophy
author Daniel Kolak isn't worried about his book, Experience
of Philosophy, also published by Thomson, because "it's a
good and happy one" in its fifth edition. Kolak is sure "it will
find a home." Kolak received a personal call from his editor that
book was on the list of divested titles. "He was extremely forthcoming
and explained everything," he said. "So I feel fine about the
acquisition."
Said Kolak:
"It all evens out in the end, I think. Books are in some ways
like people. They have their own lives. They can to a certain
degree take care of themselves if people give them a chance. Anyway,
authors should be good parents and, at some point, stop minding
their children's business. Let the children [their book] do their
own thing. I may be an idealist, but I'm also a good and happy
author."
Robert C.
Solomon, also a philosophy author, said he was informed of the
sale of his Introducing Philosophy, published by Harcourt,
through a phone call and by letter. Solomon is worried about the
sale but doesn't know what he can do to make the transition smoother:
"I don't like it, but I don't like much of what's gone in the
publishing world for the last twenty years."
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Med journals
to insist on negative findings too
WASHINGTON
August 6, 2001 -- Several leading medical journals are working
up a policy that would force pharmaceutical companies to allow
publication of negative research on studies of their products,
the Washington Post reported. The pharmaceutical companies
fund most clinical studies of their products and thus have strong
sway on what's reported and how. Under the proposed journal policies,
the journals would tell researchers that their articles would
be rejected unless their pharmaceutical-company sponsors agree
that negative as well as positive findings can be reported. The
Post said these journals will announce the policy in their
next issues:
- Journal
of the American Medical Association
- Lancet
- New
England Journal of Medicine
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Freelancers:
Air let out of Globe e-policy
BOSTON,
Massachusetts, August 6, 2001 -- Freelancers say the Boston
Globe has had the rug pulled out from its position that
demands authors yield their electronic rights to the newspaper.
The Boston Globe Freelancers Association said the U.S. Supreme
Court's author-friendly Tasini decision strengthens its
own case against the Globe's take-it-leave-it clause that
gives the newspaper the right to reissue articles, photos and
other freelance material on the web without permission or additional
compensation. In a statement the freelance group said: ""The Globe
can no longer claim that there is nothing major at stake here,
or that this is simply the normal course of progress in the Internet
age." The freelancers have challenged the Globe in court.
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Boston
freelancers take strength in Tasini
BOSTON,
Massachusetts, August 6, 2001 -- Freelancers who object to
new practices that affect them at the Boston Globe say
the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling for the freelancers in the Tasini
v. New York Times electronic rights case makes their fight
against the Globe even more important than ever. "The Tasini
decision demonstrates just how significant the rights are that
are at stake in the Massachusetts case, and we are confident that
the Globe's demand that its freelancers sign the licence
agreement will be found illegal," said the Boston Globe Freelancers
Association said in a statement.
The freelance
group filed suit against the Boston Globe last year for
requiring freelancers to sign away their electronic rights. On
June 13, Suffolk Superior Court Judge Ernest Murphy denied a motion
by the Globe to delay the case pending the Supreme Court's
decision in Tasini. The two sides are now in discovery.
"The Globe
has argued all along that the Times was going to win Tasini,
and therefore that their demand for rights to license to online
databases was a mere formality," the freelancer statement said.
"Now that the Times has lost, they and other news organizations
are potentially liable for the massive illegal infringements of
our copyrights that have already taken place."
The freelance
group said the Tasini triumph before the Supreme Court
has turned its suit against the Globe, Marx v. Globe, into
a landmark case. "Other news organizations are likely to attempt
to follow the Globe's lead, doing everything in their power
to force freelancers to sign away contractual rights to older
material in their databases,"the freelancers said.
The Tasini
decision, said the freelancer group, is a win for all freelancers,
affirming the position that the group has had all along: "That
the Globe's contract, far from being simply an attempt
to codify some straightforward, reasonable business arrangements,
is a huge rights-grab." The freelancers are blunt: "The Globe
can no longer claim that there is nothing major at stake here,
or that this is simply the normal course of progress in the Internet
age."
The Globe,
the largest newspaper in New England, is owned by the New York
Times.
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Med journals
aim at research reporting limits
BOSTON,
Massachusetts, August 7, 2001 -- The editor of the New
England Journal of Medicine, Jeffrey Dreazen, confirmed that
several medical journals will soon insist that articles include
even negative findings from studies sponsored by drug companies.
Dreazen declined to disclose details before the journals announce
it in their forthcoming issues. As a condition for financing research,
some drug companies have forbidden scholars from reporting negative
findings. The journals' new policy is expected to pressure drug
companies to stop hamstringing researchers or forgo the publicity
their products gain from medical journal articles.
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School
bans To Kill a Mockingbird
MUSKOGEE,
Oklahoma, August 7, 2001 -- Muskogee High School removed Harper
Lee's Pulitzer-winning To Kill A Mockingbird as required
freshman reading. Why? Administrators said the book's racially
charged language could offend African-Americans. The American
Civil Liberties Union challenged the decision. ACLU attorney Michael
Camfield, called the book "about as anti-racist as you can get
in a novel."
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Done-deal:
Houghton now a Vivendi unit
PARIS,
August 7, 2001 -- France-based conglomerate Vivendi Universal,
whose far-flung interests include movies and municipal water works,
announced that its acquisition of U.S. educational publisher Houghton
Mifflin had been completed. Vivendi chair Jean Marie Messier said
the company is in "an extremely competitive position to capitalize
on the growth of the education sector." The subsidiary VU Publishing,
into which Houghton has been folded, will focus on education and
literature, games, and health.
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Despite
critics, some colleges still rent texts
WHITEWATER,
Wisconsin, August 8, 2001 -- Innovations in textbooks like
password-access web sites have created problems at University
of Wisconsin campuses that rent textbooks to students, but the
old rental system, dating back almost 70 years, remains basically
in place at nine campuses. The wisdom of textbook renting, in
use at only about 30 colleges nationwide, remains widely challenged.
Some critics say it sends that wrong message to students that
books are only of transitory value. At Text and Academic Authors,
the executive director, Ron Pynn, says rental systems encourage
faculty to keep using old books even when new and better ones
become available.
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Textbook
rentals soldier on in Wisconsin
WHITEWATER,
Wisconsin, August 8, 2001 -- For historic reasons that date
to the Great Depression, Wisconsin remains home to more colleges
than anywhere else that rent textbooks to students -- rather than
sell them. Seven four-year and two two-year campuses in the state
university system are in the rental business: UW-Barron County,
UW-Eau Claire, UW-La Crosse, UW-Platteville, UW-Richland Center,
UW-River Falls, UW-Stevens Point, UW-Stout and UW-Whitewater.
It's practice
instituted in the economically desperate 1930s, when state government
looked for ways to ease the burden on students. Only a few colleges
have gone to rentals in recent years. When students proposed it
a few years ago at Winona State University in Minnesota, across
the Mississippi River from Wisconsin, the university president,
Darrell Krueger, said it would "send the wrong message" to students
that textbooks are only of transitory value.
Also working
against expansion of rental systems is the huge investment in
inventory that is needed. A campus would need to buy an entire
fleet of books at once -- a multi-million dollar outlay for even
modest-size institutions.
But the system
soldiers on at some Wisconsin campuses, albeit with adjustments
over time. For example, at UW-Whitewater, textbooks for graduate
courses are unavailable for rental. Also, undergraduates are encouraged
to keep the books they rent. Said Terrie Meinel, acting associate
bookstore director: "Undergraduate students are encouraged to
purchase any of the books they are renting, or any others in the
system, and we offer a 10 to 30 percent discount, depending on
how long the title has been in the system."
As a general
policy, an adopted textbook is used by faculty for three years
so the rental revenue can offset the university's investment.
There is some flexibility on the three-year policy at the discretion
of the bookstore director, said Meinel. There also is an appeal
process to a faculty committee. The appeal process, he said, is
"seldom necessary" since many textbooks are on a three-year or
longer edition cycle.
In a situation
in which textbooks or learning materials come with an expirable
access code, said Meinel, they would not be available for rental.
Students have to buy. At UW-Whitewater, the bookstore hasn't faced
this issue, however, he said.
If a book
comes packaged with a CD-ROM that is used by individual students
and professors, it is barcoded and treated like a book, said Meinel:
"Students check them out, and they return them. We have not had
a problem with this method."
As might be
expected, textbook authors are not keen on rentals. The executive
director of Text and Academic Authors, Ron Pynn, said there are
many problems associated with book rentals. "It keeps out of date
books in circulation too long and works against better books being
adopted. The pressure is to use a book the school purchases as
a student loaner for as long as the school can, to get their money
out of the text. This works against a new book, better pedagogically,
being adopted. It also keeps the book in circulation when a new
edition may be appropriate."
Journalism
author John Vivian, a former TAA president, also opposes textbook
rental systems. It forces professors, through "substantial, unstated
institutional pressure," he said, to keep books for sometimes
five years, the time needed for the institution to recoup the
investment. The result? "In many fields, students have outdated
materials -- which is not good education," he said.
"Certainly,
it cheapens the perceived role of learning materials in the educational
process," said Vivian. "It's worth noting that many rental schools
are second- and third-tier institutions -- no Harvards, Princetons,
Madisons or Berkeleys."
Vivian said
the issue of textbook rentals is an interesting although not major
issue for authors overall: "As far as I know, the publishers have
never fought it although they don't think it's a good idea either.
To fight it would be perceived as greediness. I think, though,
that opposition can be argued on sounder, pedagogical grounds.
Textbooks, after all, are a modest part of a student's total college
bill."
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GRAY
12 authoring steps
ST. PETERSBURG,
Florida, August 8, 2001 -- The brochure promoting Text and
Academic Authors' workshops on authoring has been revised. The
update lists the scholarly authoring series offered by writing
coach Tara Gray of New Mexico State University. TAA co-sponsors
those workshops. This is the whole lineup of TAA workshops:
- "Authoring
a Text or Professional Book"
- "Writing
a Winning Book Proposal"
- "Successful
Journal Writing"
- "Self Publishing"
- "Publish,
Don't Perish: 12 Steps to Help Scholars Flourish
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Times:
"Steady stream" giving up e-rights
NEW YORK,
August 10, 2001 -- More than 500 freelance contributors to
the New York Times have given the newspaper the right to
sell their articles on the web without paying additional compensation,
company spokesperson Toby Usnik said. Usnik called it "a steady
stream." The Times has been trying to obtain retroactive
e-rights from thousands of freelancers whose works were put on
commercial database services for pay-for-download sales. In June
the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the practice was a copyright
violation and that author permission was needed.
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Yes, that's
Mike Keedy in the quartet
BARLOW,
Florida, August 11, 2001 -- TAA founder Mike Keedy, now in
retirement in Barlow, is working on a newsletter for the Barbershop
Harmony Society. Keedy has been singing barbershop ever more energetically
in recent years.
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How Harcourt
touts biology Texty winners
FORT WORTH,
Texas, August 12, 2001 -- When Jennie Dusheck and Allan Tobin's
biology textbook Asking About Life won a Text and Academic
Authors' Texty Award in 1999, development editor Lee Marcott decided
to use the honor as a promotional tool. The award is referred
to on the back of the latest edition. Also, the award is mentioned
in marketing aimed at potential adopters. "We thought adopters
would be impressed that the book had won an award like this,"
said Marcott.
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Wiley buys
Dummies, CliffsNotes
NEW YORK,
August 13, 2001 -- The science, medical and technical publisher
John Wiley bought Hungry Minds, which owns the For Dummies
and CliffsNotes brands. The price, $182.5 million, covers
Hungry Minds debts. Hungry Minds has had problems since an attempt
to shift into electronic delivery.
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Brake
folds adopters into text planning
MESA, Arizona,
August 14, 2001 -- A veteran textbook editor, David Brake
of McGraw-Hill and earlier Prentice Hall, has created a support
service company for authors and publishers. Brake said that unique
services include bringing potential adopters into the early development
phase of a new textbook. "Using an innovative e-marketing strategy
we generate timeline-driven marketing pieces that 'touch' the
customer regularly, giving them a greater sense of involvement
and influence throughout the product development process," Brake
said.
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Boise Cascade
denies author probe
BOISE,
Idaho, August 14, 2001 -- Boise Cascade spokesperson Mike
Mosher denied allegations that the company has carried its battle
against three academic authors into personal investigations. One
author had claimed that the Boise Cascade is responsible for a
break-in at his home. Computer files were broken into, and the
family cat was poisoned, William Wines told police. In an interview,
Mosher said Boise Cascade, a Fortune 500 company, is not investigating
the authors in any way. He confirmed, however, that the company
sent a letter to the authors after the settlement, saying that
Boise Cascade continues to be concerned about an article that
Wines and two co-authors wrote for the Denver Journal of International
Law & Policy. The article claimed the company was responsible
for environmental abuses in Mexico. At Boise Cascade's behest,
the article was retracted by the University of Denver after publication.
The authors then sued the University of Denver for libel, and
the university agreed to apologize to them and return the copyright.
Mosher said Boise Cascade has let the authors know that it will
object if they submit the article anywhere else.
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TAA president:
Put ads in newsletter, shut down news site
TWIN FALLS,
Idaho, August 14, 2001 -- The president of Text and Academic
Authors, Peggy Stanfield, proposed converting the association's
newsletter, the Academic Author, into a financially self-sufficient
advertising-based publication. Her proposal was sent to the association's
Executive Committee. Stanfield, a nutrition author, modeled her
proposal on a newsletter in her discipline that runs 22 pages
of ads every issue. Besides ads, Stanfield proposed four pages
of news, roughly the same as in the current Academic Author.
Her plan includes shutting down the TAA news site on the web.
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Georgia
Press hires Alabama director
ATHENS,
Georgia, August 20, 2001 -- The director of the University
of Alabama Press, Nicole Mitchell, has taken the job as director
of the larger University of Georgia Press. Mitchell succeeds Karen
Orchard, who is retiring. Mitchell said she wants to build on
Georgia's traditional strengths, Southern history and literature,
with a nature and environment list. She noted that the Georgia
and Alabama presses have similar lists.
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Pearson
tries piracy-proof e-delivery
BOSTON,
Massachusetts, August 21, 2001 -- The Pearson Learning Network
launched a beta version of a new secure online delivery system
for several business and economics titles. The system, elibrarian,
makes the e-texts available to elibrary subscriber groups with
no piracy risk, Peason said.
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Wiley
acquires Fabozzi financial text firm
NEW YORK,
August 21, 2001 -- Publishing giant John Wiley & Sons acquired
Fabozzi Publishing, which was founded in 1993 by finance author
Frank Fabozzi. Terms were not disclosed. Fabozzi publishes about
10 books a year, including top-selling Fixed Income Securities
and Investing in Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities. About
80 titles are on the Fabozzi backlist.
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Exhibitors
to return to TAA convention
SAN DIEGO,
California, August 23, 2001 -- Invitations for vendors and
suppliers to exhibit at the TAA national convention are being
issued by Michael Lennie, program chair. Lennie said details,
including a fee structure, are still being worked out. A decision
on fees will be made Sept. 12 when the TAA Council's executive
committee holds a telephone conference, he said. Not since the
1996 Chicago convention has the association had exhibitors. The
1996 fee was $100 per table.
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Brit investors
buy Dutch schoolbook firm
HAARLEM,
Netherlands, August 22, 2001 -- A British investor group,
3i, bought the Haarlem-based schoolbook company EIG for US$171
million. A spokesperson for the 3i management team, Jacques Eijkensled,
said the group plans to move EIG into new markets besides Holland
and Belgium. 3i bought EIG from VNU of the Netherlands, which
is shedding assets outside its new focus on business information
services. VNU, also, is raising cash to pay off its $2.2 billion
acquisition of the U.,S. market research company ACNielsen.
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Convention
tally: Outgo tops income
ST. PETERSBURG,
Florida, August 24, 2001 -- The 2000 Text and Academic Authors
convention in San Diego lost almost $3,600, the association's
executive manager, Janet Tucker, said. A surprise audiovisual
charge from the hotel was one factor, Tucker said. One presenter
had not brought a laptop for a presentation, which necessitated
an additional rental. Also, Tucker said, catering ran higher than
expected. Tucker's report:
| EXPENSES:
$12,988.13 |
| STAFF |
OFFICE |
HOTEL |
| Lodging |
$2087.48 |
Award |
$684.47 |
Banquet |
$2,954.78 |
|
|
Per diem |
750.00 |
Supplies |
339.88 |
Audiovisual |
1,747.40 |
|
Airfare |
1,637.50 |
Promo |
602.97 |
Catering |
1,829.67 |
|
Expenses |
351.60 |
. |
. |
Copying |
22.38 |
| INCOME:
$9,426.50 |
| Registration |
$6,786.50 |
. |
| Banquet |
2,440.00 |
. |
Guests |
200.00 |
. |
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TAA committee
exploring advertising plan
ST. PETERSBRG,
Florida, August 24, 2001 -- The TAA Council's executive committee
agreed to consider a proposal by association President Peggy Stanfield
to solicit advertisements to commercialize the TAA newsletter.
It was agreed in a teleconference to pursue the idea of a newsletter
operated by an editor, with a salary probably in the $12,000 range
plus an incentive based on advertising that the editor would solicit.
Mary Kay Switzer, the association's secretary, said she knew of
possible candidates. The newsletter issue was created in June
when John Vivian, who has been the association's editor for eight
years, announced he would leave the position at the end of the
year to spend more time authoring his textbooks. The consensus
was that the current news site edited by Vivian could not be maintained.
TAA Vice President Mike Sullivan said he will investigate possibilities
for a scaled down web site.
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Envisional
traces 7,200 pirated books
LONDON,
August 27, 2001 -- More than 7,200 pirated books are available
to anybody with a web browser, the web monitoring firm Envisional
said. An Envisional study found the books, accessible through
file-sharing systems, were made by scanning printed books. Most
of the pirated books were trade best-sellers, not textbooks. Envisional
used its own tracking system to trace the pirated books to their
source. Most are on servers in countries without strong copyright
protection traditions, Envisional said.
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Academic
Author editor leaving for newsletter
job
FOUNTAIN
CITY, Wisconsin, August 28, 2000 -- The editor of the Text
and Academic Authors Association newsletter, Kim Pawlak of Fountain
City, resigned to accept greater responsibilities with commercial
newsletter publisher Stevenson Consultants of Sioux City, Iowa.
Pawlak has covered authoring news for TAA for seven years, most
recently editing the Academic Author. Two years ago she
received the Mike Keedy Award, the association's highest recognition.
John Vivian, TAA editor, applauded Pawlak for her high level of
professionalism in keeping TAA members on top of association news
and authoring news in general. "TAA has the most respected member
communication program in U.S. authoring, and Kim Pawlak has been
a major reason," Vivian said. What about the Academic Author?
Pawlak is editing the October issue. Then, Vivian said, he and
desktop editor Paula Heimbecker will pick up Pawlak's duties for
the December issue.
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Norway
collections up 34 percent
OSLO, Norway,
August 28, 2001 -- The Norwegian collections for photocopying
of copyright-protected works, a portion of which helps fund U.S.
authoring organizations, including TAA, grew 34 percent in the
most recent annual accounting, compared to a year before. The
collection and distribution agency, Kopinor, said the increase
was a one-time upward adjustment due to a collection calendar
change.
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NSF grant
for New Mexico workshop
LAS CRUCES,
New Mexico, August 29, 2001 -- Authoring coach Tara Gray,
who offers workshops in conjunction with Text and Academic Authors,
will present a special session on academic writing for minority
doctoral students in science, mathematics and engineering who
want to pursue careers as university professors. The workshop,
on Oct. 20, is sponsored through a grant from the National Science
Foundation to the New Mexico Alliance for Graduate Education and
the Professoriate. Thirty-five participants are expected at the
Las Cruces workshop.
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Scholar:
27 indies survive mega-mergers
ROCKAWAY,
New York, August 29, 2001 -- A study by learning materials
researcher Bob Resnick found 27 independent el-hi publishers with
more than $5 million in revenue. None are quite the household
names of the major houses that have been consolidated into global
conglomerates, but some are pulling in big bucks. By Resnick's
estimates, three indies have revenue exceeding $50 million.
With the venerable
big-name el-hi publishers like Harcourt, Houghton and others all
subsumed by global conglomerates, what's left? Plenty, says schoolbook
scholar Bob Resnick, a former member of the TAA Council. Resnick
studied financial statements and other sources and concluded that
27 independent el-hi publishers are in business and doing very
well, thank you, with revenues of $5 to $100 million. Resnick's
ranking by revenue:
| $50
MILLION TO $100 MILLION |
| Highlights
for Children |
Columbus,
Ohio |
| Advantage
Learning |
Wisconsin
Rapids, Wisconsin |
| Lakeshore |
Carson,
California |
| $40
MILLION TO $50 MILLION |
| Educational
Insights |
|
| TRO
Learning (PLATO) |
Edina,
Minnesota |
| Kendall
Hunt |
Dubuque,
Iowa |
| $30
MILLION TO $40 MILLION |
| Highsmith
|
Fort
Atkinson, Wisconsin |
| Saxon |
Norman,
Oklahoma |
| Sadlier-Oxford |
New
York |
| $20
MILLION TO $30 MILLION |
| AIMS
Media |
Chatsworth.
California |
| Curriculum
Associates |
North
Billerica, Massachusetts |
| Hampton-Brown |
Marina,
California |
| Perfection
Learning |
Des
Moines, Iowa |
| Education
Center |
Greensborough,
North Carolina |
| $10
MILLION TO $20 MILLION |
| Creative
Teaching |
Cypress,
California |
| Evan-Moor |
Monterey,
California |
| High/Scope |
Ypsilanta,
Michigan |
| Learning
Resources |
Vernon
Hills, Illinois |
| Millbrook
Press |
Brookfield,
Connecticut |
| Phoenix
Learning |
New
York |
| Teacher
Created Materials |
Westminster,
California |
| Lerner
Group |
Minneapolis,
Minnesota |
| $5
MILLION TO $10 MILLION |
| Gamco-Siboney |
St.
Louis, Missouri |
| J.
Weston Walch |
Portland
Maine |
| Queue |
Fairfield,
Connecticut |
| Santillana |
Miami
Florida |
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TAA receives
annual reprography check
FLORENCE,
Alabama, August 29, 2001 -- The Text and Academic Authors
annual share of repatriated reprographic collections, almost $137,000
this year, has been received from the Authors Coalition, association
Treasurer John Wakefield said. The revenue is the largest since
TAA began receiving funds from the Coalition, a clearinghouse
for fees collected abroad for the photocopying of works that originated
in the United States. The payment to TAA included $81,000 from
Sweden and $39,000 from Norway. The Swedish revenue is a one-time
payment for 10 years of collection and will not be nearly that
much in the future, said Mike Sullivan, who represents TAA to
the Coalition. Here is a breakdown of the TAA share of Coalition
funds:
| Sweden
collections |
$
80,900.35 |
| Norway
collections |
38,874.86 |
| From
Coalition reserve with interest |
4,181.97 |
| 1998
Coalition escrow |
7,795.60 |
| TOTAL: |
$
136,752.78 |
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TAA joins
amicus brief to High Court
ST. PETERSBURG,
Florida, August 29, 2001 -- The U.S. Supreme Court should
reject a publisher-backed appeal to reconsider author e-rights,
said the executive director of Text and Academic Authors. Ron
Pynn said the association is joining other author groups in a
brief to the Court. The brief, still being drafted, will argue
against a request from publishers for the Court to review the
author-friendly lower-court decision in Greenberg v. National
Geographic. Most observers see the National Geographic Society's
request to the Supreme Court as an attempt to undo the High Court's
own author-friendly decision last May in the Tasini case.
Several major publishers and also librarians have sided with National
Geographic.
Complete
text of brief
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TAA: Supreme
Court review pointless in National Geographic author case
ST. PETERSBURG,
Florida, August 29, 2001 -- The Text and Academic Authors
Association joined other author groups in urging the U.S. Supreme
Court against considering an appeal by the National Geographic
Society of an author-friendly court decision from a lower-court
decision in Atlanta. At issue is National Geographic's recycling
of freelance contributions into a CD-ROM without author permission
or compensation. Ron Pynn, TAA executive director, said the issue
parallels that in Tasini v. New York Times, in which the
U.S. Supreme Court sided with the authors. TAA had also signed
on to an amicus brief in the Tasini case. TAA "is pleased
to join in this amicus curiae brief," Pynn said.
The Greenberg
case originated with Jerry Greenberg, a photographer, who challenged
National Geographic Society's CD-ROM compilation of 100 years
of issues of its National Geographic magazine. Greenberg
prevailed in the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta.
Even though that author-friendly decision was consistent with
the U.S. Supreme Court's Tasini decision, National Geographic
has engaged superstar attorney Ken Starr, best known for his work
in the Clinton-Lewinsky case, to spearhead an appeal to the U.S.
Supreme Court. Starr's first challenge is convincing the Court
to consider the case. The Court chooses which cases to review.
Typically the Court takes only 150 a year from 4,000 to 5,000
requests.
The publishing
community is backing the National Geographic in asking the Supreme
Court to take the case. The publishers, also, have convinced the
library community to support their request for a Supreme Court
review. The publisher position, in short, is that publishers should
be able to do whatever they want with material accepted for publication,
including putting the material into retrievable databases in ways
that nobody could ever have anticipated when the materials first
appeared in print. Inherent in the publishers' position is that
authors not share in any additional revenue.
The American
Society of Media Photographers, which led author groups in successfully
arguing parallel issues to the U.S. Supreme Court in the landmark
Tasini case, is rounding up support from author-based groups
in support of Greenberg against the National Geographic. Vic Perlman,
general counsel for Media Photographers, said that author unity
is important.
Perlman said
that Ken Starr's petition "is full of misdirection and misrepresentations."
Perlman said he expects that Greenberg will prevail in arguing
that the Court's Tasini decision has already settled the
issues in the Greenberg case and that a review would be pointless.
Said Perlman: "Fortunately, Jerry is represented by extremely
capable counsel, and his brief effectively counters Geographic's
maneuvers."
Perlman said
the Media Photographers brief would be "very short and to the
point," five pages max. "The thrust of our position is to bolster
the concepts that:
> "The 11th
Circuit decision is correct. Even if it were incorrect, the purpose
of granting certiorari is not to correct errors of lower courts.
> "It is consistent
with Tasini even though entered before Tasini.
> "The publishers'
predictions of doom and gloom were already rejected in Tasini
and are not a valid ground for granting certiorari."
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