TODAY'S NEWS

Rowling Trial Wraps Up on Day Three
By John Sellers
Despite Judge Robert P. Patterson’s calling the lawsuit a “so-called three-day trial" at one point during Tuesday’s proceedings, on Wednesday the remaining witnesses took the stand—including J.K. Rowling once more—and closing arguments were delivered in Rowling and Warner Brothers’ trial vs. RDR Books. Although the trial is over, both sides have until May 9 to submit legal paperwork to Judge Patterson, so a decision in the case won’t be forthcoming anytime soon.

Wednesday did prove to be a book-lover’s dream, beginning with Judge Patterson referencing Charles Dickens’s Bleak House in his opening comments—in an oblique comment on the way that lengthy trials can ruin lives—as well as Shakespeare’s tragedies, which he recalled his father reading to him when he was young. Building on comments he made at the end of the previous day’s proceedings, Patterson reiterated that he felt this was a case that “could be settled and should be settled,” and that it would only take “a little imagination” to make that happen. Read on »

Publishers Sue Georgia State for Copyright Infringement
by Calvin Reid
With the support the Association American of Publishers, two university presses and a commercial publisher have filed a copyright infringement suit against officials at Georgia State University, charging systematic copyright infringement. The suit charges GSU president Ron Henry, along with the dean of libraries and the associate provost for information systems and technology, with encouraging university professors to distribute digital copies of copyrighted material through the school’s electronic course reserves and through Blackboard/WebCT, an online course management system, without permission of the copyright holders. The publishers filing suit include Oxford University Press; Cambridge University Press and SAGE, which publishes materials for the academic and professional markets. Read on »

LBF Updates: U.K. Publishers Get Tech Solutions from Germany, Norway and the U.S.
By Lynn Andriani
‘How are other countries dealing with the technology issues that are facing all of us [in the U.K.]?’ That was the topic of discussion at Tuesday’s Digitisation: International Solutions panel at the London Book Fair. ‘The Americans are probably leading the way,’ said panel moderator Francis Bennett, chairman of Ehaus. But as the hour-long discussion showed, Norway and Germany are also implementing innovative ways to handle online bookselling, online book searching, and the standardization of e-book formats. Read on »

Bush's '09 Budget Elminates RIF Funding
by Kevin Howell
President Bush’s proposed 2009 budget eliminates all the funding for Reading Is Fundamental’s book distribution program that has, since 1966, provided more than 325 million books to more than 30 million underprivileged children.

“With 13 million children living in poverty in this country, the need for RIF has never been greater,” said RIF CEO/president Carol Rasco, The annually funded RIF program is currently approved through September 2009, but if Bush’s budget is approved, 4.6 million children will not receive 16 million free books the following year. RIF, the oldest and largest children’s and family nonprofit literacy organization in the U.S, has been funded by Congress and six Administrations without interruption since 1975. Read on »

Water for Elephants Spends One Year on Bestsellers List
By Judith Rosen
This week marks a milestone for writer Sara Gruen and her Chapel Hill, N.C.-based publisher Algonquin Books. The paperback edition of her novel Water for Elephants has been on the New York Times bestsellers list for 52 consecutive weeks and has 1.8 million copies in print. The hardcover edition was on the Times list for 13 weeks and has 285,000 copies in print.

The next closest Algonquin bestseller, according to publicity director Michael Taeckens, was Robert Morgan’s novel Gap Creek: The Story of a Marriage, which was selected as an Oprah Book Club pick in 2000 and subsequently stayed on the Times list for 12 weeks. Read on »

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AUTHORS ON THE AIR

Authors on the Air: Red Leather Diary; Green Child Care; Ralph Bakshi, Celebrated
Today, Oprah hosts Craig Kielburger, co-author of Me to We: Finding Meaning in a Material World (Fireside, $14; S&S Audio abridged CD, $29.95). Read on »

PICTURE OF THE DAY

Ephron Shoots at the Strand
Nora Ephron was at the Strand Book Store on Thursday, shooting scenes for her new movie, Julie & Julia, an adaptation of Julie Powell’s book of the same name. For the scene, which has star Amy Adams browsing through the Strand’s dollar carts with co-star Mary Lynn Rajskub, Strand owner, Nancy Bass Wyden, played an extra. Pictured here (l. to r.) are: Strand owner Fred Bass; Delia Ephron; Nora Ephron; and Bass Wyden. Submit your pictures here »

JOB OF THE DAY

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