More than a decade ago, a book editor managing her own imprint at one of the big publishing houses gave me some insight into her world that I’ll never forget. “I have to publish about five diet books,” she told me, “in order to invest in one new novelist.” It’s important to understand that this is not a comment on ...
When it comes to new ideas about copyright, Derek Khanna is a very good looking person. In fact I’m reasonably sure this particular tweet was actually composed by his perfect hair. For the uninitiated, Khanna is the new poster boy for conservatives against artists’ rights, a career he effectively created for himself when he wrote a thoroughly uninformed memo for ...
This op-ed that appeared in yesterday’s New York Times is easily one of the best pieces I’ve read on both the cultural and financial dangers of forsaking copyright in the name of technological “progress.” The entire article is a pull-quote, but here are two that get right to the heart of the matter: “The value of copyrights is being quickly ...
I watched this Amanda Palmer TED Talk “The Art of Asking” over the weekend and found it both remarkable and inspiring. Her frankness and humanity are unassailable. Who can argue with an artist who says, “I put myself and my work out there, I ask to be embraced, and I am embraced”? Kudos to her for doing it. Kudos to ...
English lexicographer Jonathon Green offers this well-reasoned article criticizing crowd sourcing for dictionaries under the thesis “dictionaries are not democratic.” As a confirmed word snob and English language fetishist, I have to say that I generally agree. To study and love the English language is to accept and even celebrate that it is and always has been the most mutable ...
