Too Little, Too Late: What Happens When Publishers Ignore Copyright Issues

Via Flickr user
Mike Seyfang

It’s not always easy talking to publishers about copyright. Why? It’s not as if they don’t understand its significance. The days are long past when senior executives in our industry thought about copyright—when they thought about it at all—as an arcane topic suitable only for attorneys and academics. They are all aware that there’s an incessant and often very polarized public debate about it and in my experience most publishers are sensitive to the threat posed by efforts to erode the protections copyright has given to their businesses.

The difficulties arise because, for many, the commercial threats don’t feel imminent, or because the risks feel difficult to predict or measure, or because they’re happening somewhere else. Some degree of complacency is understandable in these circumstances when publishers have so many other challenges to face and opportunities to exploit.