Recently the U.K.s Society of Authors has called for payments to authors made under the national tax-payer funded Public Lending Rights (PLR) program to be expanded to include digital content. Though such an expansion seems unlikely in a time of austerity, the principle of appropriately compensating creators of content is an appropriate extension the concept of intellectual property rights. Most of the countries of the world that value individuals intellectual contributions to society have some model of tracking library usage of authors works and compensating them for that usage. Such ...

Tor Publishing is making its titles Digital Rights Management (DRM)-free in a test run that may give ebook owners better control over the content they purchase. Now buyers of any ebook on the Tor list will be able to move that book from one reader to another without having to go through stripping the DRM. Market-savvy J.K. Rowling has used her clout to offer her titles DRM-free exclusively through her own website. Perhaps surprisingly, this has not increased the pirating of her books. Tor president and publisher Tom Doherty sees the majority of the sci-fi and fantasy community as a so...

In recent weeks, Ive been coming across articles about kids who are published authors. One article in the New York Times featured kids with parents who had coordinated what used to be called vanity publishing for their kids. Another was a public school systemfeel-good press release about a classroom project in which kids had published their writing. What treacle. In all the brouhaha over ebook pricing structures, there are a lot of romantic visions of writers producing bargain-priced, high-quality work once the vulture-like publishers are out of the picture. As someone who is willing ...

This weekends release of the film adaptation of The Hunger Games is likely to boost sales for Amazons no. 1 bestselling ebook of 2011. Scholastic, Inc.s marketing juggernautis the perfect formula for marketing beyond its core audience of children: put grown-up content with heavy-handed allusion to pop culture into books marketed to tweens and teens, but keep the reading levelsimple enough that readers with low comprehension skills wont be turned off. Oh, and be sure to make it a series. According to the Lexile Framework for Reading, The Hunger Games (810L) requires a lower level of rea...

The Green Carpet Challenge is an effort by Vogue Editor France Sozzani and Livia Firth (married to Colin Firth) to inspire the fashion industry to reduce its carbon high-heeled footprint. The challenge (for designers who accept it) is to use only environmentally ethical methods in producing red carpet gowns.These creatorsincorporate responsible and sustainable resources and re-purpose material from existing garments and recycled items. Livia Firth wore an eco-friendly design to each award show this season and convinced at least one other star to participatefor each red carpet event....

Though Emma Stone is of Swedish descent, not Irish, she looked lovely in green earlier this year. I wonder if shell bring out this gorgeous frock for St. Patricks Day. Lets take a look back at this up-and-coming style starlets journey this award season. Critics Choice Awards January 12, 2012 Right out of the gate, Stone proved she wasnt afraid to play with color against her pale skin and burnt ember tresses, wearing a long flowing Jason Wu gown. The glowing emerald print beautifully intensified her natural coloring. Golden Globes January 15, 2012 For the Globes, Stone step...

Who had our water cooler tongues wagging this year? Here are my picks for top fashion VIPs. Most Popular: Right Legs. High side slits were all the rage on the red carpet this year. Many stars wowed us with gam glam from Angelina Jolie to Viola Davis to Lea Michelle. Best Team Players: Octavia Spencer and Tadashi Shoji. Octavia Spencer won the hearts (and most of the awards this season) of red carpet devotees. She remained loyal for most award shows to designer Tadashi Shoji. The winning pair consistently turned out glamorous and excitedly not 0-sized gowns all season. Most Athleti...

Great leading ladies neither burn out nor fade away. They adapt their red carpet looks as they mature. Two great actresses over the age of sixty who managed to keep it stylish and sexy but still age appropriate this year are Helen Mirren and Glenn Close. English actress Helen Mirren rarely makes a misstep on the red carpet and at the Golden Globes this year she wowed in a ruffled and glamorous navy blue Badgley Mischka gown, Badgley Mischka clutch, Fred Leighton sapphire and diamond jewelry, and Jimmy Choo shoes. The gorgeous 66-year-old also wore Badgley Mischka to the Directors Gui...

Lets face it I cant talk about male trophy dates without starting with the men that dangle from the arms of Angelina Jolie and Stacy Keibler. Cmon, these two ladies have the Godiva of arm candy! At the 2012 Academy Awards Stacy Keibler and George Clooney both looked flawless. Why not? Few couples in Hollywood have top designers at their beck and call like these two. Keibler rivaled the golden statue himself in a beyond gorgeous Marchesa gown. She paired it perfectly with boyfriend George Clooney who looked fantastic and debonair in Giorgio Armani. Angelina Jolie also looked amazing...

At the 84th Academy Awards Show last night starlets of all ages and sizes tried to prove that all that glitters is Oscar gold. Some of the evenings trends included strapless or one- shoulder gowns, and sexy high side slits (also seen a lot on Fashion Week runways this year). My favorite pick for the evening was presenter Milla Jovovich in Elie Saab (one of the actresses go-to designers). Milla is usually so strong in her films it was great to see her in the white, one-shoulder gown looking as graceful and feminine as a European countess. Glamorous makeup and hair with jewelry by Jacob &...

Lets face it color is a subject largely designer driven. Many award gowns are practically whisked off the runway for their red carpet debut. From this vantage point they are literally broadcast around the world. Then clothing manufacturers set about the task of producing similar, cheaper garments for the masses. Respecting this hierarchy, lets look at some of this years red carpet color trends that will likely be affecting our future fashion: Nude / Blush Tones Nudes abounded at the Golden Globes this year being worn by Angelina Jolie in Versace, Kate Beckinsdale in Roberto Cava...

If youre a less-is-more-kind of girl this award season may be for you. There have been many high impact pieces for sure, but overall red carpet attendees have been draped in only a few well chosen pieces like a knockout pair of earrings paired with a diamond bangle. Proof that a few carefully placed pieces really allow a gown to shine. After all, the purpose of jewelry is to compliment you (like a good date), but never upstage the overall look. Let me assure you Im going to skip the highly-panned Kristen Wiig choker debacle at the SAG Awards all together and get right to this awa...

Choosing the right dress, navigating designers, the politics of picking the right stylist, coordinating an army of hair and makeup professionals talk about drama! Newcomers to the awards season have to prove themselves a quick study. Two early style standouts this awards season are newbies Berenice Bejo and Jessica Chastain. Berenice Bejo from The Artist is an established Argentine-French actress, but a new face to American award season devotees. This year shes earned her first SAG and Academy Award nominations. At the Critics Choice Awards, she donned an electric cobalt blue dress fr...

Hollywood is a big town with small dress sizes. Most sample sizes for red carpet gowns are 0-2 (not 20). Actresses who are plus-sized or even over a size 6have to vie for the top dresses alongside sample size A-Listers. In addition, the top dresses often go to the current years hot new style darlings like the kids from Glee. But in the political world of couture dress placement, there are a handful of designers offering sophistication for the not-so-tiny. David Meister is one of them. This American clothier is known for impeccable fit and modern styling. Many of his designs are very ...

Fashion recklessness abounded at the 2012 Grammy Awards as the music industrys finest attempted to don designer labels without losing their street cred. The red carpet (naturally overshadowed by the death of legendary Whitney Houston) gave us everything from high fashion la carte to fashion Id rather see carted away. As to be expected, attendees like Fergie, Lady Gaga, and Nicki Minaj tried to upstage and out-strange one another in a color war to rival the L.A. gang scene. Most of the ladies formed two teams: Color and Sparkle. Another trend of the evening was long trains like t...

The 2012 Orange British Academy Film Awards at the Royal Opera House in London premiered today once again bringing up the age old question: Do the Brits do it better? I must admit they sound infinitely more refined than us Yanks when discussing who designed their shoes. However, an American stole the red carpet hands down my pick for best dressed is a surprising Christina Ricci in Givenchy by Riccardo Tisci. She was flawless. Riccis look was right out of a 1940s Hollywood high-glamour movie, but the hair, makeup and accessories brought a modern finesse to the overall look. Simply b...

As much as I enjoy my Kindle Touch as an ideal device for readers on the go, Im not always impressed by the offerings of what can be called its incentive features. One of these, the Prime membership read-for-free feature called Kindle Owners Lending Library, is too much like a street vendors remaindered books table. You can spend a lot of time looking before you find anything worth reading. At $79, I still consider my Kindle to be a bargain. For anyone who wants to kill commuting time or kid-chauffeuring time with something to read, its great to have the grab-and-go selection. Im just not...

Once youre in the store, youre sure to see plenty of other stuff you want to buy. Even more than selling digital content, I think Amazon wants to sell you a Prime Membership. Once youve got the Kindle, its hard not to want that membership to get access to the Amazon lending library. After all, youll get some free reading, plus some free video streaming to your PC or Kindle Fire (if youve gone that route) and no per-purchase shipping charges on two-day delivery of physical merchandise. Andrew Wassreiler at iSuppli has a nice write-up of the materials and manufacturing costs of the Kindle F...

Vulgar [vuhl-ger] adj. -- of, pertaining to, or constituting the ordinary people in a society: the vulgar masses. Reportedly, Amazon is pursuing the possibility of providing an ebook lending service as part of its Amazon Prime program. If this program does take off at the current Amazon Prime annual membership fee of $79, it could be a modern version of 19th century athenum membership (a type of fee-based private library membership). However, at this price point, the electronic version wouldnt be restricted to Boston Brahmin types as in the old days. It would be accessible to many ordinar...

While there are some real jewels of cookbooks available as ebooks, their publication is so sporadic and their pricing is so inconsistent that they arent likely to solve British domestic goddess Nigella Lawsons storage problem. After I recently purged a fair number of cookbooks, I thought it might be time to replace some of my favorite print copies with ebooks. I thought that at the least I would begin purchasing any new books in ebook format. I took a look at what was available in ebook format and was pretty discouraged that many of my favorite classics are not available as ebooks. Ne...