Authors irate
Australian Society of Authors chair David Day is promising a vigorous campaign against the expansion of "fair use" after the end of the long-running copyright case involving Google's scanning of books in the US. The ASA was party to the Authors Guild case and Day says "we have to now argue the case against fair use in Australia". The campaign will be political and public and involve the publishing industry and authors and will be of concern to "anybody to whom protection of copyright is important". He points to the situation in Canada which allows education departments and universities to make use of published material without payment. The result, he says, is a vast amount taken out of the Canadian equivalent of the Copyright Agency and the decimation of educational publishing. Day says copyright protection is a big part of the ecology of the publishing industry in Australia. The Productivity Commission's interim report into intellectual property arrangements is expected on Friday.
And only Forster knew
Who was the middle-aged couple contentedly browsing in the Hill of Content last Saturday morning? The music caught their attention and they shifted to the centre of the shop. To hear better? Perhaps. But also to see if they'd be recognised. The album was former Go Betweener Robert Forster's Songs to Play, and the couple were none other than Forster and his violinist wife, Karin Baumler. The track was And I Knew, but no one seemed to know them. At least, that's what he told the audience at a gig he played later that evening at the National Gallery of Victoria.
A Prince of memoirs?
In the same way that books about the late David Bowie are looming, so one can assume will books about the late Prince. But the big question is what will happen to his memoir, the publication of which was revealed by Random House last month. Supposedly to be called The Beautiful Ones – yes, it's a track on Purple Rain – it was scheduled for the northern autumn next year. How much the small but perfectly formed musician had written is not clear. One US website reports he had written 50 pages. According to International Business Times, Prince was going to work with his brother Dan. "He's a good critic, and that's what I need. He's not a yes-man at all, and he's really helping me get through this," Prince was reported as saying.
Marilynne Robinson bolts in
Time magazine still does its annual 100 most influential people list and this year the writers included are Ta-Nehisi Coates, Elena Ferrante – there's a surprise – and Marilynne Robinson. The first two are included under the artists category whereas Robinson is under icons with such curious bedfellows as Usain Bolt, Nicki Minaj and Adele.
