Google and the AAP Settle

In the news today…

Google and the Association of American Publishers (the AAP), who were suing Google to stop the Google Library Project, have today announced a settlement agreement. The agreement is on behalf of a wide range of authors and publishers worldwide and will expand online access to millions of in-copyright books and written materials.

It has been reported that:

“The agreement promises to benefit readers and researchers, and enhance the ability of authors and publishers to distribute their content in digital form, by significantly expanding online access to works through Google Book Search, an ambitious effort to make millions of books searchable via the Web. The agreement acknowledges the rights and interests of copyright owners, provides an efficient means for them to control how their intellectual property is accessed online and enables them to receive compensation for online access to their works.”

You can find more details of this in Peter Suber’s post on the Open Access News blog or on the AAP's own website.

Image by manfrys on Flickr BY-SA

Medicine/IT/IP conference - Call For Papers

The call for papers and posters for the SCRIPT-ed 2009 conference 'Governance of New Technologies: The Transformation of Medicine, Information Technology and Intellectual Property’ closes in just over three weeks time on Sat 15th November. The conference organisers are looking for 300 word abstracts at this stage.

The international, inter-disciplinary conference will focus on evolving and emerging technologies and new-technology-driven practices and their impact on the overlapping fields of (1) healthcare, (2) information technology and (3) intellectual property. It will take place in Edinburgh on the 29th to 31st March 2009.

You can find further information on the SCRIPTed website.

Rights & Repositories Resources

The presentations and reports from the JISC Rights & Repositories meeting held in
London last month can now be found online in the Repositories and Preservation section of the JISC website

The resources include PowerPoint presentations and top tips documents covering topics such as negotiating with rights holders, risk management and choosing the right licence.