PRESS CONTACT Richard Hull |
2013 Press Releases
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Text and Academic Authors Association Statement on
Supreme Court Decision in Gray Market Textbook Case
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., March 27, 2013 -- The following statement was released today by
Richard Hull, Executive Director of the Text and Academic Authors Association (TAA) in
response to the Supreme Court’s decision in Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.:
“TAA is disappointed in the Supreme Court’s ruling in favor of Supap Kirtsaeng in the gray
market case, Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
With the Court’s decision, arbitrage in textbooks has been legalized, with the likely consequence
that publishers will have no alternative but to pull quality U.S. textbooks from many
underdeveloped and underserved markets.
In the near term, those markets will lose access to a resource key to their further development. In
the longer term, U.S. textbook prices will be driven ever higher as development and support
costs are spread over fewer and fewer units and per unit costs of manufacture are driven ever
higher.
While the arbitrage in textbooks deeply discounted for foreign markets injures publishers when
those books are imported for sale in the U.S. market and displace domestic book sales, the
adverse impact is multiplied by the time it filters through to the authors of those books in
drastically reduced royalties.
The importation of gray market materials unfairly deprives authors of the value of their work,
and undermines their incentives to develop new textbooks.”
Download Press Release PDF (120 KB)
About the Text and Academic Authors Association:
The Text and Academic Authors Association (TAA) provides professional development
resources, industry news and networking opportunities for textbook authors and authors of
scholarly journal articles and books.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Text and Academic Authors Association
2013 Award Winners
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., March 5, 2013 -- The Text and Academic Authors Association has announced its 2013 textbook award winners. Sixteen awards were given in three different award categories. Eight textbooks were awarded 2013 Most Promising New Textbook Awards, seven textbooks were awarded 2013 Textbook Excellence Awards (Texty), and one textbook was awarded a 2013 William Holmes McGuffey Longevity Award (McGuffey).
The Most Promising New Textbook Award is awarded to recognize excellence in first year edition textbooks and learning materials. The Texty is awarded to recognize excellence in current textbook and learning materials in their 2nd edition or later, and the McGuffey is awarded to recognize textbooks and learning materials whose excellence has been demonstrated over time.
The awards will be presented during an awards luncheon at TAA’s 26th Annual Textbook & Academic Authoring Conference in Reno, NV, June 21-22.
Individual Press Releases for Each Winner (PDFs):
Big Idea Math Textbook Wins 2013 Most Promising New Text Award
Beginner’s Guide-Neuroscience Textbook Wins 2013 Most Promising New Text Award
Math Power Textbook Wins 2013 Most Promising New Text Award
A Map for Success Coding Textbook Wins 2013 Most Promising New Text Award
Human Sexuality Textbook Wins 2013 Most Promising New Text Award
College Algebra Textbook Wins 2013 Most Promising New Text Award
Biological Inorganic Chemistry Wins 2013 Textbook Excellence Award
Computer Organization and Architecture Textbook Wins 2013 Textbook Excellence Award
The UX Book Textbook Wins 2013 Textbook Excellence Award
Cp “Teach” Expert Coding Made Easy Wins 2013 Textbook Excellence Award
Molecular Biology Wins 2013 Textbook Excellence Award
Essential Computer Organization and Architecture Textbook Wins 2013 Textbook Excellence Award
Calculus Wins 2013 Textbook Excellence Award
Criminal Profiling Textbook Wins 2013 Textbook Excellence Award
Biomaterials Science Textbook Wins 2013 Textbook Excellence Award
Business Communication Textbook wins 2013 McGuffey Longevity Award
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Text and Academic Authors Association Files Amicus Brief in
Google Books Case
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., Feb. 19, 2013 -- The Text and Academic Authors Association (TAA) filed an amicus brief February 15 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, joining six other writers’ associations in support of the district court’s certification of authors as a class action in the Google Books mass copying case.
Preservation of the class certification is essential to the plaintiffs’ position in that case because the authors individually do not have claims large enough to justify the burden and cost of prosecution. As a class, however, their collected claims are substantial.
Google had entered agreements with five major libraries to scan the bulk of their respective collections into a giant database for the purpose of public search and retrieval. Google did its scanning indiscriminately, without regard to whether the individual works were still under copyright protection, and thus without consent of the copyright holders. Google defended this conduct on the ground that the use to which it would put the unauthorized copies was a fair use-- a contention with which TAA vigorously disagrees.
TAA thought it especially important, in the interest of both its textbook author and scholarly author members, to support the plaintiff-authors’ position on this issue because a group of 155 academics led by Professor Pamela Samuelson, UC Berkeley, had filed a contrary amicus brief in support of Google’s position. The Samuelson group took the position that the class was not appropriately representative of all potential members because academics by and large were interested only in the widest dissemination of their writings and were not motivated at all by the prospect of royalties or license fees.
TAA and its fellow amici took the position that the Samuelson perspective was a minority
perspective and that, in any event, a decision in favor of class certification would leave the
Samuelson group free to waive its rights and grant royalty–free consent as to Google’s
exploitation of their works, whereas a decertification of the class would leave the rest of the class
without a viable remedy. More broadly, TAA and its fellow amici believe that a decision
allowing Google to proceed with impunity undermines the economics of scholarly publishing in
a way that imperils the future publication of the most sophisticated works, those that are at the
cutting edge of science and literature, but that also enjoy the narrowest markets and thus survive
on the thin edge of financial viability.
Download Press Release PDF (112 KB)
About the Text and Academic Authors Association:
The Text and Academic Authors Association (TAA) provides professional development
resources, industry news and networking opportunities for textbook authors and authors of
scholarly journal articles and books.
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