tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/publishers-40644/articlesPublishers – The Conversation2023-02-23T13:33:02Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1984842023-02-23T13:33:02Z2023-02-23T13:33:02ZNovelist, academic and tattoo artist Samuel Steward’s plight shows that ‘cancel culture’ was alive and well in the 1930s<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511802/original/file-20230222-20-4w67dr.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=12%2C10%2C1201%2C890&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Outside of teaching and writing, Samuel Steward took up tattooing.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2010/07/26/books/0726SECRET2/0726SECRET2-jumbo.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp">The Estate of Samuel M. Steward</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In January 2023, Hamline University <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/08/us/hamline-university-islam-prophet-muhammad.html">opted not to renew the contract</a> of an art professor who showed a 14th-century depiction of the Prophet Muhammad in class. Hamline labeled the incident “Islamophobic” and released a statement, co-signed by the university’s president, saying that respect for “Muslim students … should have superseded academic freedom.” </p>
<p>After <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2023/01/hamline-university-adjunct-professor-freedom/672713/">widespread backlash</a>, the university walked back that statement. However, the lecturer was still not rehired.</p>
<p>Concerns about academic freedom are nothing new. Rather than being a product of recent “<a href="https://theconversation.com/can-we-cancel-cancel-culture-164666">cancel culture</a>,” tension has long existed over the ability of professors to freely teach and write about controversial topics without fear of retribution.</p>
<p>More than 80 years ago, an English professor named <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/26/books/26secret.html">Samuel Steward</a> was dismissed from his teaching position after publishing what his college’s president deemed a “racy” novel.</p>
<p><a href="https://works.bepress.com/alessandro-meregaglia/">As an archivist and scholar</a> studying publishing in the American West, I’ve located published and unpublished archival sources detailing the controversy surrounding Steward after he published his first novel, which ultimately cost him his job.</p>
<h2>A book met with backlash</h2>
<p>A native of the Midwest, Steward earned his Ph.D. in English in 1934 from Ohio State University. The following year, Washington State College – now Washington State University – hired Steward to teach classes on a one-year contract.</p>
<p>An aspiring writer, Steward drafted his first novel while still a graduate student. He worked to find a publisher and contacted a small firm in rural Idaho. After an editorial review, Caxton Printers agreed to publish Steward’s novel, “Angels on the Bough,” which told the story of a small group of characters and their intertwined lives in a college town.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Black and white portrait of man wearing small glasses." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511495/original/file-20230221-28-b44wu2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511495/original/file-20230221-28-b44wu2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=956&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511495/original/file-20230221-28-b44wu2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=956&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511495/original/file-20230221-28-b44wu2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=956&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511495/original/file-20230221-28-b44wu2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1201&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511495/original/file-20230221-28-b44wu2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1201&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511495/original/file-20230221-28-b44wu2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1201&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Caxton Printers founder James H. Gipson.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lehigh University Special Collections</span></span>
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<p>Founded in 1907, <a href="https://www.caxtonpress.com/">Caxton Printers</a> has earned national attention for its fierce defense of freedom of expression and unique publishing philosophy. Caxton’s founder, James H. Gipson, understood the transformative power of books and sought to give a voice to deserving writers when other firms rejected them. Profit was not a motivator. As Gipson <a href="https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:80444/xv02075">explained</a> to Steward, “We are interested not in making money out of any author for whom we may publish, but in helping him.”</p>
<p>Caxton published “Angels on the Bough” in May 1936. </p>
<p>The book immediately received reviews, almost entirely positive, in dozens of newspapers across the country. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1936/05/31/archives/trouble-in-academe-angels-on-the-bough-sm-steward-317-pp-caldwell.html">The New York Times</a> wrote favorably about the novel, describing Steward as possessing “a very distinct gift above the usual.”</p>
<p>And <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/gertrude-stein">Gertrude Stein</a>, the American writer and expatriate who lived most of her life in France, lauded “Angels on the Bough” in a letter she penned to Steward.</p>
<p>“I like it I like it a lot, you have really created a piece of something,” <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Dear_Sammy/A1dbAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=%22quite%20definitely%22">Stein wrote</a>. “It quite definitely did something to me.”</p>
<h2>Steward loses his job</h2>
<p>Despite the favorable reception, the book started causing trouble for Steward before it was even published. Review copies reached campus in early May 1936. Steward soon began hearing rumors that college administrators found his book distasteful for its sympathetic portrayal of a prostitute, one of the main characters.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A yellow book cover." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511801/original/file-20230222-26-roekc4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511801/original/file-20230222-26-roekc4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=873&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511801/original/file-20230222-26-roekc4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=873&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511801/original/file-20230222-26-roekc4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=873&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511801/original/file-20230222-26-roekc4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1097&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511801/original/file-20230222-26-roekc4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1097&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511801/original/file-20230222-26-roekc4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1097&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The publication of ‘Angels on the Bough’ prompted Washington State College to not renew Steward’s contract.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alessandro Meregaglia</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Yet, as Steward <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Gay_Sunshine_Interviews/T8wYAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=%22little%20women%22">noted in an interview</a> during the 1970s, the book was “very tame – reading like ‘Little Women’ by today’s standards.”</p>
<p>Steward sent an urgent telegram to Gipson asking him to stop selling the book on campus: “A young poor man with only one job asks that you withdraw his novel … because his departmental head and dean hint at his discharge.”</p>
<p>Caxton had advertised the book as “not appeal[ing] to the less liberal mind.” This “alarmed several people,” <a href="https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:80444/xv02075">according to Steward</a>. The head of the English department told Steward his book contained “unsavory material” and that Steward’s position “would undoubtedly prove very embarrassing” to the college.</p>
<p>Despite this, Steward still planned to return to teach classes the following autumn. Earlier that spring, he had been verbally assured that he would receive another one-year contract. Three weeks later, however – and just hours before he left campus for the summer – Washington State’s president, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100308091433/http:/president.wsu.edu/office/university-governance/past-presidents/holland.html">Ernest O. Holland</a>, summoned Steward to a meeting.</p>
<p>Holland informed Steward his contract would not be renewed. He accused Steward of writing a “racy” novel and of being sympathetic with a <a href="https://content.libraries.wsu.edu/digital/collection/clipping/id/110709/rec/3">student strike</a> a month earlier.</p>
<p>Angered, Steward immediately dashed off a telegram to Gipson: “Discharged by God Holland for writing a racy novel … I have no regrets whatsoever despite the fact his methods were those of Hitler but think I will take up stenography.”</p>
<p>Steward and Gipson both set to work to widely publicize Steward’s dismissal. Steward appealed to the <a href="https://www.aaup.org/">Association of American University Professors</a> for assistance. Founded in 1915, the association’s primary purpose is “to advance academic freedom.” The organization still regularly investigates violations of academic freedom, <a href="https://www.aaup.org/news/aaup-launches-inquiry-hamline-university#.Y_U3HHbMKUk">including what happened at Hamline University</a>.</p>
<p>After months of investigation, the AAUP published <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40219810">its report</a>. It determined that Steward had been unjustly let go and concluded that “President Holland’s handling of the Steward case has been most ill-judged, and indicates … improper restriction of literary freedom.”</p>
<h2>From teaching to tattooing</h2>
<p>After leaving Washington State, Steward promptly found a position at Loyola, a Catholic university in Chicago. Before hiring him, Loyola’s dean read Steward’s book and apparently had no objections. An AAUP member <a href="https://searcharchives.library.gwu.edu/repositories/2/archival_objects/374014">noted the irony</a>: “Apparently our Catholic brethren are much more tolerant than a state institution in Washington.”</p>
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<img alt="Shirtless tattooed man smoking a cigarette." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511498/original/file-20230221-3821-5leisr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511498/original/file-20230221-3821-5leisr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=961&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511498/original/file-20230221-3821-5leisr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=961&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511498/original/file-20230221-3821-5leisr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=961&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511498/original/file-20230221-3821-5leisr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1207&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511498/original/file-20230221-3821-5leisr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1207&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511498/original/file-20230221-3821-5leisr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1207&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Samuel Steward worked as a tattoo artist under the alias Phil Sparrow.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d6/Samuel_Morris_Steward_1957.jpg">Wikimedia</a></span>
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<p>Outside of teaching, Steward, who was gay, published gay erotica under the pseudonym Phil Andros and took up tattooing. By 1956, Steward permanently left academia to ply his trade as a tattoo artist full time on Chicago’s South State Street under another alias, Philip Sparrow.</p>
<p>In the 1960s, he moved to California and opened up a tattoo parlor in Oakland, where he became the <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Secret_Historian/cl9kgQmqj54C?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=%22official%22%20%22hells%20angels%22">“official” tattoo artist</a> for the Hells Angels motorcycle club.</p>
<p>After retiring from tattooing, Steward lived a quiet life in Berkeley. He still wrote frequently, producing a handful of <a href="https://worldcat.org/search?q=au%3D%22Steward%2C+Samuel+M.%22&itemSubType=book-printbook&orderBy=publicationDateDesc&itemSubTypeModified=book-printbook&datePublished=1950-1993">fiction and nonfiction books</a>. Steward <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1994/01/20/obituaries/samuel-steward-84-a-writer-about-stein.html">died in California in 1993</a> at the age of 84.</p>
<p>Despite his prolific and varied career, Steward’s legacy as a “<a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Gay_American_Autobiography/6Frgs5iRL4YC?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=%22remarkable%20figure%22">remarkable figure in gay literary history</a>” was not widely known until the publication of Justin Spring’s meticulously researched 2010 book, “<a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Secret_Historian/cl9kgQmqj54C?hl=en&gbpv=0">Secret Historian</a>.”</p>
<p>Interest in Steward continues. Performance artist John Kelly recently staged a show, “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/01/theater/john-kelly-underneath-the-skin.html">Underneath the Skin</a>,” in December 2022 that examined Steward’s life.</p>
<p>It is impossible, of course, to know the trajectory of Samuel Steward’s career if he had been reappointed to Washington State for another year. But a prescient comment Steward made just before his dismissal suggests that he sensed he couldn’t stay in academia forever: “I am afraid I will have to get out of the teaching profession in order to be able to write the way I want to.”</p>
<p>Academic freedom is <a href="https://www.aaup.org/our-work/protecting-academic-freedom/academic-freedom-and-first-amendment-2007">related to free speech</a>. A <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/For_the_Common_Good/y6ozEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0">long-standing tradition</a> afforded to college faculty, it shields professors from retribution – from both internal and external sources – for teaching controversial topics within their area of expertise. <a href="https://www.aaup.org/report/1940-statement-principles-academic-freedom-and-tenure">According to the AAUP</a>, academic freedom is based on the premise that higher education promotes “the common good (which) depends upon the free search for truth and its free exposition.” </p>
<p>This protection covers both classroom lectures and publications.</p>
<p>With debates about academic freedom lately making headlines – from <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/society/hrw-harvard-israel-kennedy-school/">outside interests influencing appointments</a>, to <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2023/01/hamline-university-adjunct-professor-freedom/672713/">administrators kowtowing to vocal students</a>, to <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2023/01/11/desantis-seeks-overhaul-small-liberal-arts-college">politicians changing oversight of public universities</a> – Steward’s plight some 87 years ago is a reminder that this freedom requires constant defense.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198484/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alessandro Meregaglia does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The ability of professors to freely teach and write about controversial topics without fear of retribution is nothing new.Alessandro Meregaglia, Associate Professor and Archivist, Boise State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1940692022-11-14T19:00:23Z2022-11-14T19:00:23ZChokepoint Capitalism: why we’ll all lose unless we stop Amazon, Spotify and other platforms squeezing cash from creators<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494947/original/file-20221113-18-5ebjcc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=29%2C245%2C3580%2C1928&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 2020, the independent authors and small publishers whose audiobooks reach their readers via Audible’s <a href="https://www.acx.com/">ACX platform</a> smelled a rat.</p>
<p>Audiobooks were booming, but sales of their own books – produced at great expense and well-reviewed – were plummeting. </p>
<p>Some of their royalty statements reported <em>negative</em> sales, as readers returned more books than they bought. This was hard to make sense of, because Audible only reported net sales, refusing to reveal the sales and refunds that made them up. </p>
<p>Perth-based writer <a href="https://www.susanmaywriter.net/single-post/audiblegate-the-incredible-story-of-missing-sales">Susan May</a> wondered whether those returns might be the reason for her dwindling net sales. She pressed Audible to tell her how many of her sales were being negated by returns, but the company stonewalled. </p>
<p>Then, in October 2020, a glitch caused three weeks of returns data to be reported in a single day, and authors discovered that hundreds (and even thousands) of their sales had been wiped out by returns. </p>
<p>Suddenly, the scam came into focus: the Amazon-owned Audible had been offering an extraordinarily generous returns policy, encouraging subscribers to return books they’d had on their devices for months, even if they had listened to them the whole way through, even if they had loved them – no questions asked. </p>
<p>Encouraged by the policy, some subscribers had been treating the service like a library – returning books for fresh credits they could swap for new ones. Few would have realised that Audible clawed back the royalties from the book’s authors every time a book was returned.</p>
<h2>Good for Amazon, bad for authors</h2>
<p>It was good for Amazon – it helped Audible gain and hold onto subscribers – but bad for the authors and the performers who created the audiobooks, who barely got paid.</p>
<p>Understanding Amazon’s motivation helps us understand a phenomenon we call <a href="https://scribepublications.com.au/books-authors/books/chokepoint-capitalism-9781761380075">chokepoint capitalism</a>, a modern plague on creative industries and many other industries too.</p>
<p>Orthodox economics tells us not to worry about corporations dominating markets because that will attract competitors, who will put things back in balance. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/five-ways-to-boost-australian-writers-earnings-110694">Five ways to boost Australian writers’ earnings</a>
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</em>
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<p>But many of today’s big corporations and billionaire investors have perfected ways to make those supposedly-temporary advantages permanent. </p>
<p>Warren Buffett salivates over businesses with “<a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/warren-buffett-moat-etf-simple-explanation-for-how-he-invests-and-its-easy-to-replicate-2017-10-1005613232">wide, sustainable moats</a>”. Peter Thiel scoffs that “<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/peter-thiel-competition-is-for-losers-1410535536">competition is for losers</a>”. Business schools teach students ways to lock in customers and suppliers and eliminate competition, so they can shake down the people who make what they supply and buy what they sell.</p>
<h2>Locking in customers and creators</h2>
<p>Amazon is the poster child for chokepoint capitalism. It boasts of its “<a href="https://feedvisor.com/resources/amazon-trends/amazon-flywheel-explained/">flywheel</a>” – a self-described “<a href="https://fourweekmba.com/amazon-flywheel/">virtuous cycle</a>” where its lower cost leads to lower prices and a better customer experience, which leads to more traffic, which leads to more sellers, and a better selection – which further propels the flywheel. </p>
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<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494907/original/file-20221111-21-lnbmh1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494907/original/file-20221111-21-lnbmh1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494907/original/file-20221111-21-lnbmh1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494907/original/file-20221111-21-lnbmh1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494907/original/file-20221111-21-lnbmh1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494907/original/file-20221111-21-lnbmh1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494907/original/file-20221111-21-lnbmh1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494907/original/file-20221111-21-lnbmh1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>But the way the cycle works isn’t virtuous – it’s vicious and anti-competitive. </p>
<p>Amazon openly admits to doing everything it can to lock in its customers. That’s why Audible encourages book returns: its generous offer only applies to ongoing subscribers. Audible wants the money from monthly subscribers and wants the fact that they are subscribed to prevent them from shopping elsewhere. </p>
<p>Paying the people who actually made the product it sells a fair share of earnings isn’t Amazon’s priority. Because Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ famous maxim is “<a href="https://www.marketplacepulse.com/articles/the-cost-of-your-margin-is-my-opportunity">your margin is my opportunity</a>”, the executive who figured out how to make authors foot the bill for retaining subscribers probably got a bonus.</p>
<p>Another way Audible locks customers in is by ensuring the books it sells are protected by <a href="https://www.fortinet.com/resources/cyberglossary/digital-rights-management-drm">digital rights management</a> (DRM) which means they are encrypted, and can only be read by software with the decryption key.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-us-government-is-trying-to-stop-the-merger-of-two-of-the-worlds-biggest-publishers-but-will-it-help-authors-188364">The US government is trying to stop the merger of two of the world's biggest publishers – but will it help authors?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>Amazon claims DRM stops listeners from stealing from creators by pirating their books. But tools to strip away those locks are freely available online, and it’s easy for readers who can’t or won’t pay for books to find illegal versions. </p>
<p>While DRM doesn’t prevent infringement, it <em>does</em> prevent competition. </p>
<p>Startups that want to challenge Audible’s dominance – including those that would pay fairly – have to persuade potential customers to give up their Audible titles or to inconveniently maintain separate libraries. </p>
<p>In this way, laws that were intended to protect against infringement of copyright have become tools to protect against infringement of corporate dominance. </p>
<p>Once customers are locked in, suppliers (authors and publishers) are locked in too. It’s incredibly difficult to reach audiobook buyers unless you’re on Audible. When the suppliers are locked in, they can be shaken down for an ever-greater share of what the buyers hand over.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494908/original/file-20221111-16-pua9cp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494908/original/file-20221111-16-pua9cp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494908/original/file-20221111-16-pua9cp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494908/original/file-20221111-16-pua9cp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494908/original/file-20221111-16-pua9cp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494908/original/file-20221111-16-pua9cp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494908/original/file-20221111-16-pua9cp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494908/original/file-20221111-16-pua9cp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<h2>How a few big buyers can control whole markets</h2>
<p>The problem isn’t with middlemen as such: book shops, record labels, book and music publishers, agents and myriad others provide valuable services that help keep creative wheels turning. </p>
<p>The problem arises when these middlemen grow powerful enough to bend markets into hourglass shapes, with audiences at one end, masses of creators at the other, and themselves operating as a chokepoint in the middle. </p>
<p>Since everyone has to go through them, they’re able to control the terms on which creative goods and services are exchanged - and extract more than their fair share of value.</p>
<p>The corporations who create these chokepoints are trying to “monopsonise” their markets. “Monopsony” isn’t a pretty word, but it’s one we are going to have to get familiar with to understand why so many of us are feeling squeezed. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.wallstreetmojo.com/monopoly">Monopoly</a> (or near-monopoly) is where there is only one big seller, leaving buyers with few other places to turn. <a href="https://www.wallstreetmojo.com/monopsony/">Monopsony</a> is where there is only one big buyer, leaving sellers with few other places to turn.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/theres-an-obvious-reason-wages-arent-growing-but-you-wont-hear-it-from-treasury-or-the-reserve-bank-122041">There's an obvious reason wages aren't growing, but you won't hear it from Treasury or the Reserve Bank</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>In our book, we quote William Deresiewicz, a former professor of English at Yale University, who points out in his book <a href="https://www.chicagoreview.org/william-deresiewicz-the-death-of-the-artist/">The Death of the Artist</a> that “if you can only sell your product to a single entity, it’s not your customer; it’s your boss”.</p>
<p>Increasingly, it is how the creative industries are structured. There’s Audible for audiobooks, Amazon for physical and digital versions, YouTube for video, Google and Facebook for online news advertising, the <a href="https://www.liveabout.com/big-three-record-labels-2460743">Big Three record labels</a> (who own the big three music publishers) for recorded music, <a href="https://pluralistic.net/2022/09/12/streaming-doesnt-pay/">Spotify</a> for streaming, Live Nation for live music and ticketing – and that’s just the start. </p>
<p>But as corporate concentration increases across the board, monopsony is becoming a problem for the rest of us. For a glimpse into what happens to labour markets when buyers become too powerful, just think about how monopsonistic supermarkets bully food manufacturers and farmers.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494912/original/file-20221112-11-u879gw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494912/original/file-20221112-11-u879gw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=966&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494912/original/file-20221112-11-u879gw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=966&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494912/original/file-20221112-11-u879gw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=966&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494912/original/file-20221112-11-u879gw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1214&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494912/original/file-20221112-11-u879gw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1214&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494912/original/file-20221112-11-u879gw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1214&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://scribepublications.com.au/books-authors/books/chokepoint-capitalism-9781761380075">Scribe Publications</a></span>
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<h2>A fairer deal for consumers and creators</h2>
<p>The good news is that we don’t have to put up with it.</p>
<p><a href="https://scribepublications.com.au/books-authors/books/chokepoint-capitalism-9781761380075">Chokepoint Capitalism</a> isn’t one of those “Chapter 11 books” – ten chapters about how terrible everything is, plus a conclusion with some vague suggestions about what can be done. </p>
<p>The whole second half is devoted to detailed proposals for widening these chokepoints out – such as transparency rights, among others. </p>
<p>Audible’s sly trick only finally came to light because of the glitch that let authors see the scope of returns. </p>
<p>That glitch enabled writers, led by Susan May, to organise a campaign that eventually forced Audible to reform some of its more egregious practices. But we need more light in dark corners. </p>
<p>And we need reforms to contract law to level the playing field in negotiations, interoperability rights to prevent lock-in to platforms, copyrights being better secured to creators rather than publishers, and minimum wages for creative work. </p>
<p>These and the other things we suggest would do much to empower artists and get them paid. And they would provide inspiration for the increasing rest of us who are supplying our goods or our labour to increasingly powerful corporations that can’t seem to keep their hands out of our pockets.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Chokepoint Capitalism: how big tech and big content captured creative labour markets, and how we’ll win them back is published on <a href="https://scribepublications.com.au/books-authors/books/chokepoint-capitalism-9781761380075">Tuesday November 15</a> by Scribe.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194069/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rebecca Giblin receives funding from the Australian Research Council and state and territory libraries for the Author's Interest Project (authorsinterest.org), the eLending Project (elendingproject.org) and Untapped: the Australian Literary Heritage Project (untapped.org.au). She is a Fellow of the CREATe research centre at the University of Glasgow, and a member of the Author's Alliance and the Australian Digital Alliance. She has occasionally and intermittently used Audible's service since its inception (though has not been a subscriber for a very long time),buys goods and services from Amazon when she really has to, subscribes to Spotify (where she sometimes listens to music controlled by the Big Three record labels, and published by their Big Three music publisher subsidiaries), and sometimes watches videos on YouTube.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cory Doctorow is a consultant to the Electronic Frontier Foundation. He co-founded the UK Open Rights Group. He is a visiting professor of practice at the University of North Carolina's School of Library and Information Science. He is a dues-paying member of the Free Software Foundation and FSF Europe. His books and audiobooks are published by Random House, Macmillan, Beacon Press, McSweeney's, HarperCollins, Hachette, and many other publishers. These are for sale on Amazon, Excerpts of his work are for sale on Audible. He runs a personal ebook store (craphound.com/shop) that compete with Amazon and Audible for ebook and audiobook sales. One of his books was favorably reviewed and endorsed by Jeff Bezos.</span></em></p>Rebecca Giblin and Cory Doctorow’s new book reveals the tricks behind ‘Chokepoint Capitalism’ – how big corporations use low prices to lock in users and creators, while locking out real competition.Rebecca Giblin, ARC Future Fellow; Associate Professor; Director, Intellectual Property Research Institute of Australia, The University of MelbourneCory Doctorow, Visiting professor of computer science, The Open UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1871662022-07-20T05:14:55Z2022-07-20T05:14:55ZPublishers vs the Internet Archive: why the world’s biggest online library is in court over digital book lending<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475010/original/file-20220720-22-rebqz8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5918%2C3915&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/december-29-2018-la-trobe-reading-1919650016">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Earlier this month, the Internet Archive asked a US court to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/book-publishers-internet-archive-ask-court-decide-ebook-lending-fight-2022-07-08/">end a lawsuit</a> filed against it by four large book publishers.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://archive.org/">Internet Archive</a> is a not-for-profit organisation founded in 1996 that lends digital copies of books, music, movies and other digitised content to the public. It <a href="https://archive.org/about/">aims</a> to support people with print disabilities, preserve digital content for future generations and democratise access to knowledge.</p>
<p>The publishers say the Internet Archive’s digital lending practices amount to wilful copyright infringement. Authors have also <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/culture/theatre/the-future-of-libraries-or-haven-for-piracy-the-case-of-the-internet-archive-20220717-p5b27d.html">complained</a> the site hosts pirated content. </p>
<p>The Internet Archive says it is <a href="https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/legaldocs/jnpwedgrdpw/IP%20ARCHIVE%20COPYRIGHT%20archivesj.pdf">behaving like an ordinary library</a>, as it only loans digital copies of physical books it owns. Its supporters at the Electronic Frontiers Foundation say the publishers simply want “<a href="https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/book-publishers-internet-archive-ask-court-decide-ebook-lending-fight-2022-07-08/">to control how libraries may lend the books they own</a>”.</p>
<h2>The National Emergency Library</h2>
<p>Publishers were particularly concerned about the “<a href="https://blog.archive.org/national-emergency-library/">National Emergency Library</a>” set up by the Internet Archive <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-national-emergency-library-is-a-gift-to-readers-everywhere">in March 2020</a>. This temporary project aimed to <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/10baTITJbFRh7D6dHVVvfgiGP2zqaMvm0EHHZYf2cBRk/mobilebasic">give teachers access</a> to digital teaching materials in the face of widespread library closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic.</p>
<p>In June 2020, the publishers Hachette, Penguin Random House, HarperCollins and John Wiley & Sons <a href="https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/digital/copyright/article/83584-internet-archive-to-end-national-emergency-library-initiative.html">filed a copyright infringement action</a>. The publishers appear to want to shut down not just the National Emergency Library, but all of the Internet Archive’s book-lending practices. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1242477219227693057"}"></div></p>
<p>The publishers claim the Internet Archive is engaging in <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.537900/gov.uscourts.nysd.537900.1.0_1.pdf">wilful mass copyright infringement</a> by lending digital books without permission from and payment to publishers.</p>
<p>The Internet Archive argues that, because it allows only one person at a time to borrow a digital book, it is simply replicating regular library lending. However, this restriction was temporarily relaxed for the National Emergency Library. </p>
<p>Ordinary library lending does not require a payment to publishers. Once a library purchases a book, the library is free to lend it out to its members. </p>
<p>The publishers are arguing that digital books are not equivalent to physical books and should be treated differently under the law.</p>
<h2>Copyright déjà vu?</h2>
<p>Didn’t Google already win the argument about digital books years ago? Yes and no.</p>
<p>Google began digitising library books in 2002. In 2005, book publishers and authors brought <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authors_Guild,_Inc._v._Google,_Inc.">a high-profile lawsuit</a> against Google for copyright infringement, which took a decade to resolve.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-protect-authors-after-google-books-wins-its-fair-use-case-again-49363">How to protect authors after Google Books wins its 'fair use' case, again</a>
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<p>In the case against Google, US courts decided that making full copies of books and displaying snippets of those books to the public in the Google Books database is a “fair use”.</p>
<p>When deciding for Google, the courts paid particular attention to the historical purpose of copyright, which is to serve the <a href="https://scholar.google.com.au/scholar_case?case=2220742578695593916&q=Google+Books+2015&hl=en&as_sdt=2006">public interest in access to knowledge</a>.</p>
<h2>A question of markets</h2>
<p>But the Google Books decision does not mean book publishers will lose again against the Internet Archive.</p>
<p>In the United States, when deciding whether a use is fair or not, courts need to consider the extent to which the copyright owner’s markets are harmed.</p>
<p>Because book publishers often lend e-books commercially (including to libraries), the Internet Archive could be seen as harming that aspect of publishers’ market.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475009/original/file-20220720-12-nqmrpi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C0%2C5982%2C4500&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475009/original/file-20220720-12-nqmrpi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475009/original/file-20220720-12-nqmrpi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475009/original/file-20220720-12-nqmrpi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475009/original/file-20220720-12-nqmrpi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475009/original/file-20220720-12-nqmrpi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475009/original/file-20220720-12-nqmrpi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The Internet Archive argues it is simply acting as a library, but the court may rule differently.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/bridport-dorset-uk-november-17-2019-1562470024">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>It could be said that, by providing online access to books in full, the Internet Archive is doing for free what the publishers do for payment.</p>
<p>This is different to the Google Books decision, in which providing access to snippets of books in Google’s database was considered to potentially enhance the market for books.</p>
<h2>What counts as fair use?</h2>
<p>The flexibility of fair use is one thing the Internet Archive has on its side, however.</p>
<p>There is room for the court to assess the public benefit of the Internet Archive’s lending practices which, as the <a href="https://blog.archive.org/2020/03/24/announcing-a-national-emergency-library-to-provide-digitized-books-to-students-and-the-public/">National Emergency Library</a> exemplifies, are undeniably strong.</p>
<p>Assessing whether the public interest arguments are strong enough to overcome the weight of the market harm may be key to deciding who wins this case.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/selling-mp3s-you-should-have-stuck-with-cds-13219"> Selling MP3s? You should have stuck with CDs
</a>
</strong>
</em>
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<hr>
<p>The Internet Archive may also have difficulty establishing that its practices are simply an extension of the traditional role of libraries, and beyond the boundaries of publisher’s legitimate markets.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/selling-mp3s-you-should-have-stuck-with-cds-13219">In a case in 2013</a> involving a “second-hand” market for digital copies of music, US courts decided that emulating analogue models of dissemination was not enough to evade copyright infringement.</p>
<h2>Access matters in the digital age</h2>
<p>Underlying this recent dispute is a now decades-old tension between media industries born before and after the advent of the internet. </p>
<p>Prior to the internet, media and entertainment businesses made money by selling individual copies of content (think books, CDs, DVDS).</p>
<p>But individual copies have lost value in the internet era. Online, we seek access to content rather than ownership of copies of content.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475040/original/file-20220720-24-2h1f3u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475040/original/file-20220720-24-2h1f3u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475040/original/file-20220720-24-2h1f3u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475040/original/file-20220720-24-2h1f3u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475040/original/file-20220720-24-2h1f3u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475040/original/file-20220720-24-2h1f3u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475040/original/file-20220720-24-2h1f3u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Streaming platforms make it easy to access music or video online without owning it, but the situation for books is less clear.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/penang-malaysia-29-aug-2018-close-1773091049">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>In the music and video industries, subscription or ad-supported streaming services such as Spotify and Netflix have largely prevailed.</p>
<p>However, the lawsuit against the Internet Archive shows we have not yet, in 2022, found the right legal and economic settings for access-based book-publishing models to thrive.</p>
<h2>Finding a way forward</h2>
<p>Entities like Internet Archive have been trying to operate in the grey area between old and new by, for example, limiting access to match the number of print books in storage.</p>
<p>Rather than aiming to eliminate these grey areas, publishers should look to these activities as evidence of unmet demand and a failure to be agile in times of crisis.</p>
<p>Publishers should adapt their dissemination models to the needs of society.</p>
<p>Rather than institute restrictive terms and conditions for access, they should work with libraries to build sustainable models for dissemination that ensure books are available to people who need access to our shared knowledge and culture.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-a-book-in-the-digital-age-19071">What is a book in the digital age?</a>
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</p>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/187166/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>After 20 years of copyright battles, publishers have still not found a way to make the most of the potential of digital books.Joanne Gray, Lecturer in Digital Cultures at The University of Sydney, University of SydneyCheryl Foong, Senior Lecturer in Law, Curtin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1756482022-02-02T14:36:53Z2022-02-02T14:36:53ZSaving journalism: views on how to pay for reliable information<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442891/original/file-20220127-24-97s3jf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Newsrooms in Africa are struggling to stay afloat amid declining revenue margins</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Fredrick Omondi/Flickr/Wikimedia Commons</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Journalism globally faces a <a href="https://en.unesco.org/news/unesco-calls-global-support-independent-journalism-amid-funding-crisis-media">sustainability crisis</a>. It largely <a href="https://en.unesco.org/news/unesco-calls-global-support-independent-journalism-amid-funding-crisis-media">stems from</a> declining advertising revenue, loss of revenue to technology giants, control of news media by political actors and individuals with business interests, disinformation and dwindling public trust.</p>
<p>Twisting the knife in the wound, the financial pressure on media organisations has been worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic. <a href="https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2021/here-are-the-newsroom-layoffs-furloughs-and-closures-caused-by-the-coronavirus/">In the US</a>, for example, at least 21 local newspapers merged and about 1,400 newsroom staffers lost their jobs. <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/africas-media-hit-hard-by-covid-19-crisis/a-53427253">African journalism</a> also felt the economic impact.</p>
<p>Without journalism, the foundations on which democratic societies operate will be weaker. Public and private institutions and their actors will be less accountable in their use of power.</p>
<p>A year ago, a team of researchers at Columbia University published a <a href="https://www.kas.de/documents/283221/283270/KAS_Saving+Journalism.pdf/8ee31596-7166-30b4-551f-c442686f91ae?version=1.4&t=1611338643015">report</a> assessing interventions and new initiatives to sustain journalism. Now this team, including myself, has gone back to assess the <a href="https://www.kas.de/documents/283221/283270/Saving+Journalism+2+-+Global+Strategies+and+a+Look+at+Investigative+Journalism.pdf/a8ec2655-5636-8d69-00e5-e698e76c3845?version=1.0&t=1642517860288">status of the promising measures we documented</a>. We’ve also looked at worldwide strategies that show promise in stemming declines in revenue of media outlets and loss of journalism jobs.</p>
<p>Many countries are experimenting with different forms of government support and policies but the question is what works best and is sustainable in each context.</p>
<h2>What we found</h2>
<p>We interviewed 60 respondents: economists, policy makers, journalists, editors, academics, and media development workers from Asia, North America, South America, Australia and Africa.</p>
<p>In our earlier report, we found that there was a big appetite for sweeping changes in the business of journalism. Several funding organisations we spoke to in 2021 had made significant progress in 2020 with their support for quality journalism. Some had increased the amount of funding; others had extended funding to more media outlets. </p>
<p>Globally, there is experimentation with different forms of government support and policies. Indonesia gave a series of tax credits to local media. Australia’s <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2021A00021">News Media Bargaining Code</a> channelled hundreds of millions of dollars from Google and Facebook to different journalism outlets.</p>
<p>The people we interviewed for our latest report agree these interventions are necessary, though they believe that there is no perfect fix for saving journalism. The economists take the pragmatic view that in the absence of detailed data showing what is the most effective, interventions are worth pursuing as long as they are not harmful and can garner support.</p>
<p>We found more divided opinions in the journalism community. Some felt governmental support for journalism was crucial. However, when compared to niche players or digital startups, the larger, established outlets benefit more from many government programmes. So the bigger outlets are more in favour of government intervention.</p>
<p>Smaller outlets, particularly in Africa and Latin America, had genuine apprehensions about governmental support. Some felt that government subsidies and tax breaks wouldn’t help small outlets. Others expressed concerns about the potential influence of government on media reportage. </p>
<p>Yet they were open to accepting money from large foundations, foreign governments and tech giants. Some sub-Saharan African journalists believed that supporting quality information was of secondary importance to governments and the public in a region where so many basic needs were not met.</p>
<p>African journalism felt the economic impact of the COVID-19 outbreak. Ghanaian media houses <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBiKTN7h1lA">lost a third of their revenue</a>. Journalists faced <a href="https://kenyanwallstreet.com/nmg-to-layoff-staff-to-survive-revenue-losses/">layoffs</a>, while some newsrooms had to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/may/06/coronavirus-could-trigger-media-extinction-event-in-developing-countries">cut back</a>, <a href="https://gijn.org/2020/04/27/coronavirus-may-spell-the-end-for-many-of-africas-print-newspapers/">close</a> or put staff on compulsory leave. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/may/06/coronavirus-could-trigger-media-extinction-event-in-developing-countries">Some</a> fear a media extinction event is inevitable. </p>
<p>Most outlets in Africa received little governmental financial support. African journalists competed with journalists in other regions for donor funding. Most government support available was not media-specific. In sub-Saharan Africa it was mainly in the form of personal protective equipment.</p>
<p>Likewise, much of the support that came from media development organisations and international donors was in the form of capacity-building training to help journalists cover the pandemic effectively, and to support educational programmes.</p>
<h2>Some lingering concerns</h2>
<p>Our interviewees believe that substantial investment is needed in finding systemic solutions to make journalism sustainable. Government support and donor funding could be useful, even though some have reservations about it.</p>
<p>There is a perception that donors support journalism purely to <a href="https://ethicaljournalismnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/To-Tell-You-the-Truth-EthicalJournalism_Final-1.pdf">buy goodwill</a>. As big tech companies <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/enriquedans/2021/05/02/around-the-world-governments-are-readying-to-regulate-bigtech/?sh=f0f261a5935f">lobby</a>
governments to shape new regulations and intensify their giving where they fear regulation, or are being required to pay local news publishers for news content liked on their platforms (as in Australia), these concerns seem to be justified. </p>
<p>We believe that journalism can’t depend on the unpredictable philanthropy of tech companies. There are also questions around their possible influence on journalism content. Some of our participants suggested that to stem big tech’s possible control of media outlets, big tech must be made to pay more taxes, partly to support journalism.</p>
<h2>Looking into the future</h2>
<p>There is consensus that the amount of money needed to save journalism is not huge. <a href="https://www.cima.ned.org/publication/confronting-the-crisis-in-independent-media/">Estimates</a> are as low as US$1 billion a year. As a participant said, it is important to look from the ground up.</p>
<p>Systemic solutions like tax on tech (earmarking the revenue for journalism), a levy on turnover to support public interest journalism, government subsidies and tax credits may be useful without interfering in the work journalists do. </p>
<p>Additionally, African countries can take a cue from the Australian Code. They can build consensus to negotiate a good deal that African media will benefit from. The technical, moral, and economic support of competition regulators across countries will have a radical bearing on how negotiations turn out.</p>
<p>For donors, criteria like public trust, relevance and meeting basic information needs can guide which outlet to fund.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/175648/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Theodora Dame Adjin-Tettey receives funding from the National Research Foundation, South Africa. </span></em></p>Many countries are experimenting with different forms of government support for journalism, but the question is about what works best and is sustainable.Theodora Dame Adjin-Tettey, Research Associate, School of Journalism and Madia Studies, Rhodes University, South Africa / Lecturer, Department of Communication Studies, University of Ghana, Rhodes UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1653002021-11-16T13:18:33Z2021-11-16T13:18:33ZJournalism in middle America got communities through the pandemic<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431132/original/file-20211109-21-6ott5j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=12%2C12%2C8231%2C5475&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Journalists and news organizations had to be resilient to serve their communities during the pandemic.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/african-male-journalist-preparing-questions-for-royalty-free-image/1349183013?adppopup=true">Illustration E+/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>News of the pandemic’s devastating effect on journalism was conveyed by headlines across the nation telling of <a href="https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2021/here-are-the-newsroom-layoffs-furloughs-and-closures-caused-by-the-coronavirus/">newsroom closures, layoffs and furloughs</a>. </p>
<p>Journalism was in trouble in 2020. In fact, it had <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/07/13/u-s-newsroom-employment-has-fallen-26-since-2008/">been in trouble for a while</a>.</p>
<p>But how did so many local news organizations – especially newspapers – manage to survive the pandemic? Weeklies beefed up their daily online news coverage, business models were blown up and existing rationales for why journalism matters became more than theoretical to rural journalists. </p>
<p>Their determination to survive and serve as a public health lifeline for their communities fueled an oral history project that my colleague <a href="https://journalism.ku.edu/teri-finneman">Teri Finneman</a> and I conducted, interviewing 28 journalists across seven states in the middle of the country. We learned how locally owned and family-owned newspapers made it through COVID-19.</p>
<p>“There’ve been times that we’ve had to reach out to mayors and different cities and communities across the state … to make sure that … knew that [journalists] were deemed essential workers,” said Ashley Wimberley, executive director of the Arkansas Press Association. <a href="https://www.ncsl.org/research/labor-and-employment/covid-19-essential-workers-in-the-states.aspx#:%7E:text=According%20to%20the%20U..S,energy%20to%20defense%20to%20agriculture.">That label</a> exempted news workers from stay-at-home orders and designated them as critically needed by their communities. </p>
<p>There were no easy answers. Not in Louisiana, <a href="https://www.lsu.edu/manship/people/faculty-staff/mari.php">where I teach journalism at Lousiana State University</a>. Not anywhere.</p>
<h2>Telling the history</h2>
<p>Oral history grabs the first impressions of history for those living now, looking back at what just happened. It helps people understand the present and how to move forward, out of a crisis. But it also records events for scholars and citizens in the future.</p>
<p>“Always remember that when you’re putting those stories in your newspaper, that you are printing your community’s history,” Amy Johnson, the publisher of the <a href="https://www.springviewherald.com/">Springview Herald in Nebraska</a>, told us. </p>
<p>Benny Polacca of the <a href="http://osagenews.org/">Osage News in Oklahoma</a> told us something similar: He encouraged journalists covering some future pandemic to “do your due diligence in order to come to some type of understanding, some type of argument, some type of focus, if you were going to be reporting or researching the time of COVID-19.”</p>
<p>Often, it’s journalism on the coasts that gets the attention of researchers. The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times – these big news organizations are written about constantly. </p>
<p>By talking to journalists in North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana, our project pushed back against this tendency to ignore the middle of the nation and its important journalism. <a href="https://www.poynter.org/the-essential-workers/">As a kind of new essential worker</a>, journalists found themselves in charge of explaining complicated guidance from state and local officials about COVID-19, how schools would work and where to get help.</p>
<p>“I hope that, through this, that our role as journalism, they [the public] realize how important it is that the information we put out, you know, how it affects them every day,” Johnson said.</p>
<p>Kansas Press Association Executive Director Emily Bradbury had a message for these journalists who were working for news organizations increasingly threatened with being shut down: “I want them to know that in the midst of an emergency, in the midst of what can seem like a hopeless situation, when they look at their financials, that what they’re doing is important. And what they’re doing matters, and that no one else can do what they do, and they look out for their communities like no one else.” </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431151/original/file-20211109-19-15f6i0r.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Emily Bradbury, Kansas Press Association head, stands in front of a building with the Kansas Press Association logo. on it." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431151/original/file-20211109-19-15f6i0r.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431151/original/file-20211109-19-15f6i0r.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=799&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431151/original/file-20211109-19-15f6i0r.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=799&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431151/original/file-20211109-19-15f6i0r.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=799&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431151/original/file-20211109-19-15f6i0r.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1004&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431151/original/file-20211109-19-15f6i0r.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1004&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431151/original/file-20211109-19-15f6i0r.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1004&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Emily Bradbury, Kansas Press Association Executive Director, tells reporters that ‘what they’re doing is important. And what they’re doing matters…and they look out for their communities like no one else.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Will Mari and Teri Finneman</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Loans, side hustles and deals</h2>
<p>Reporters and editors found new ways of paying the bills. That meant accepting government subsidies in the form of <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/paycheck-protection-program-ppp-86108">Paycheck Protection Program</a> loans. It meant, for some, going door to door and asking readers to subscribe, or keep subscribing. It meant consolidating newspapers, putting out more online editions, or taking pay cuts. </p>
<p>“People just don’t understand. It costs a lot of money and time to do this, and I just wish we – there was more value or people appreciate it or understood the value and the cost of really providing this service,” said <a href="https://www.communityvoiceks.com/site/about.html#:%7E:text=Bonita%20Gooch%20serves%20both%20as,and%20accomplishments%20of%20the%20community">Bonita Gooch, the publisher of The Community Voice</a>, a Black newspaper based in Wichita, Kansas.</p>
<p>Some publishers took on side hustles to bring in revenue, creating ad copy for local business or doing marketing work. </p>
<p>At <a href="https://www.kingfisherpress.net/">The Kingfisher Times & Free Press in Oklahoma</a>, for example, Christine Reid, the paper’s editor, created ads for a local vocational-technical school. “I’ve also tried to use that as an avenue to … generate more ads for the newspaper,” Reid said. </p>
<p>Some papers worked out advertising deals with local businesses as <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/catherineerdly/2020/12/18/four-trends-that-will-shape-retail-in-2021/">consumers shopped more locally</a>. </p>
<p>Local publishers did whatever it took to stay afloat. As some of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2021.1957703">our initial findings have shown</a>, that showed both opportunity and hesitancy about change. </p>
<p>“We’re gonna have to rely less on advertising revenue and more on subscription revenue, and so we’ve got to make sure we’re offering a unique product that they want to pay for,” said <a href="https://www.bhpioneer.com/opinion/145-years-but-who-s-counting/article_d9408232-c880-11eb-a24e-1b942eb543d1.html">Letti Lister, the president and publisher of the Black Hills Pioneer</a> in Spearfish, South Dakota.</p>
<p>We saw tentative signs of hope, as journalists got financial and moral support from their readers during a fraught election. “If anything, it’s rallied the troops, if you will, in our community because they trust us, they know that we’re going to report the news in a timely manner and keep the public up to date,” said <a href="https://www.newrockfordtranscript.com/">Amy Wobbema, publisher of the New Rockford Transcript in North Dakota</a>. Arguably most coverage was <a href="https://theconversation.com/us-election-2020-a-toolkit-for-democracy-worthy-coverage-for-journalists-148591">calm and steady</a>. </p>
<p>But there was still hesitancy over what newspapers had to do to adapt. Some journalists are uncomfortable with receiving government funding and would rather rely on community support. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.sdna.com/about">South Dakota Newspaper Association Executive Director Dave Bordewyk</a> put it: “Sort of, ‘Look, contribute to our newspaper … because if you value that importance of local news and journalism, then we need your support beyond just subscribing to the newspaper or advertising, which has gone away.’” </p>
<p>Ultimately, the pandemic showed that more research needs to be done on journalism in rural areas – we managed to talk to only a fraction of the total number of small-town journalists and publishers. Other scholars have already learned that <a href="https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/publications/articles/keeping-opinion-local-the-benefits-of-cutting-national-politics-from-opinion-sections/">local journalism helps reduce violent partisanship and reinforces institutions</a>. To be clear, scholars have defined violent partisanship as the willingness to resort to physical altercations to resolve disputes – good local journalism channels that energy toward peaceful, democratic ends. Other <a href="https://citap.unc.edu/local-news-platforms-mis-disinformation/">scholars have found that institutions like local courts and governments get increased legitimacy as a result of local news</a>. More sustained scholarly attention will likely turn up other benefits that the public isn’t yet aware of.</p>
<p>“That’s what we hope. What I hope comes out of this is that readers can understand that, and can … have a renewed value on what that [local] publication has done for their community during this pandemic,” Bradbury told us. </p>
<p>[<em>Understand key political developments, each week.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/politics-weekly-74/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=politics-understand">Subscribe to The Conversation’s politics newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/165300/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>William Thomas Mari received funding from this project from the Manship School at Louisiana State University. </span></em></p>The decline of the news industry has been well documented. How did news organizations in the US heartland, facing potential extinction, survive – and even thrive – through the pandemic?William Thomas Mari, Assistant Professor of Media law and Media History, Louisiana State University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1698262021-10-18T19:14:14Z2021-10-18T19:14:14ZThis is why Australia may be powerless to force tech giants to regulate harmful content<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426820/original/file-20211018-15-2sdyrr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=393%2C30%2C2909%2C2227&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Andrew Harnik/AP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>If some anonymous troll went after one of my children, I’d be livid. And if my colleagues supported me, I’d thank them.</p>
<p>So, on some level, I can sympathise with Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce when he <a href="https://7news.com.au/technology/internet/barnaby-joyce-backs-social-media-crackdown-c-4172394">railed against</a> the rumour-mongering on social media that targeted his daughter earlier this month. </p>
<p>Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Communications Minister Paul Fletcher, who has recently authored a <a href="https://www.booktopia.com.au/governing-in-the-internet-age-paul-fletcher/book/9781922464804.html">book</a> on these matters, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/oct/07/barnaby-joyce-urges-crackdown-on-social-media-misinformation-as-defamation-changes-mooted">backed him in</a>.</p>
<p>The Coalition leaders have taken aim at the social media giants, claiming they should take greater responsibility for false and damaging content on their sites, including by identifying offenders. Should they not comply, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-07/prime-minister-defends-dutton-twitter-defamation-action/100522002">Morrison argued</a>, </p>
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<p>they’re not a platform anymore — they’re a publisher … and you know what the implication of that means.</p>
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<h2>Difference between platforms and publishers</h2>
<p>What is the difference between a publisher and platform? And what exactly are the implications, under Australian law, for US-based social media companies like Facebook and Twitter when it comes to false and harmful content being posted to their sites?</p>
<p>The main difference between the two is that one is shielded from defamation actions in Australia (platforms), while the other is not (publishers). </p>
<p>Complicating matters, in a landmark ruling last month, the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-12/facebook-defamation-high-court-ruling-exposes-more-than-media/100451198">High Court said</a> media companies and private individuals – but not the platforms themselves – can be treated as publishers of both the content they post and comments that are posted in response. As such, they can be liable for both if they are defamatory.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/high-court-rules-media-are-liable-for-facebook-comments-on-their-stories-heres-what-that-means-for-your-favourite-facebook-pages-167435">High Court rules media are liable for Facebook comments on their stories. Here's what that means for your favourite Facebook pages</a>
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<p><a href="https://www.justice.nsw.gov.au/justicepolicy/Pages/lpclrd/lpclrd_consultation/submissions-to-the-review-of-model-defamation-provisions-stage-2.aspx">Australian attorneys-general</a> are considering changes to defamation law to address this issue, including whether social media companies should be considered publishers and therefore be more liable for the content that appears on their sites. This could potentially put them at risk for defamation claims. </p>
<p>A related question addresses the obligations of these companies to identify anonymous authors of defamatory content. </p>
<p>This seems to be what Morrison had in mind when he made the distinction between platforms and publishers this month. In practice and principle, it is a vitally important and complex area of media law. </p>
<h2>Why US laws in this space are paramount</h2>
<p>For the social media giants, however, Australia’s laws on this front are far from the most important or relevant.</p>
<p>Indeed, two US laws provide American tech companies with powerful protections from defamation penalties incurred internationally.</p>
<p>The most recently enacted law is the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/111/plaws/publ223/PLAW-111publ223.pdf">Securing the Protection of our Enduring and Established Constitutional Heritage Act</a> (2010), otherwise known as the SPEECH Act. (US lawmakers love rousing titles.) </p>
<p>The SPEECH Act makes foreign defamation judgements unenforceable by US courts if they are inconsistent with US laws. This law is designed to prevent “<a href="https://scholarship.shu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1034&context=shlj">libel tourism</a>” – the act of taking action in countries such as the UK and Australia, where defamation claims are more likely to succeed.</p>
<p>The other US law that applies in cases like this is the notorious <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-section-230-an-expert-on-internet-law-and-regulation-explains-the-legislation-that-paved-the-way-for-facebook-google-and-twitter-164993">section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (1996)</a>, containing what has been described as “<a href="https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501714412/the-twenty-six-words-that-created-the-internet/">the 26 words that created the internet</a>”. This passage says</p>
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<p>no provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information provider. </p>
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<p>This law, enacted a decade before the rise of social media, essentially shields tech companies from legal responsibility for the content that appears on their sites, with very few exceptions.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-section-230-an-expert-on-internet-law-and-regulation-explains-the-legislation-that-paved-the-way-for-facebook-google-and-twitter-164993">What is Section 230? An expert on internet law and regulation explains the legislation that paved the way for Facebook, Google and Twitter</a>
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<p>Despite a growing consensus among US lawmakers that section 230 is a problem, <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/there-is-no-bipartisan-consensus-on-big-tech/">there is no bipartisan agreement</a> on the nature of the problem, or how to fix it.</p>
<p>The irony is that section 230 was designed to encourage emergent online platforms (blogging and chat sites, chiefly) to monitor, moderate and/or remove harmful (and “obscene”) content. </p>
<p>Previously, these sites were protected if they left user-posted content untouched, but they ran the risk of being seen as a publisher, and thus liable, if they took editorial action against such content. </p>
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<h2>Does Australia have any legal options?</h2>
<p>Together, the SPEECH Act and section 230 suggest Australian defamation findings against US-based companies might be unenforceable. So threats to treat Facebook and Twitter as publishers may be toothless.</p>
<p>Australia can claim jurisdiction on the basis these companies are operating businesses here, but this may not be sufficient. Their complex multinational corporate structures provide the tech giants with an effective judicial shield.</p>
<p>Australia could also try to make enforcement easier by <a href="https://bennettandco.com.au/areas/defamation/suing-google-facebook-or-twitter-for-defamation/">pursuing the matter through law reform</a>. For example, legislation could make tech giants’ local subsidiaries liable for local content and require assets to be held locally for use as potential compensation.</p>
<p>But this, I predict, would meet with robust resistance. </p>
<p>The Australian government may claim to have beaten the tech giants once already with the <a href="https://www.acma.gov.au/news-media-bargaining-code#:%7E:text=Mediation%20and%20arbitration-,About%20the%20code,platforms%20and%20Australian%20news%20businesses.">news media bargaining code</a>, which forced them to the bargaining table on the matter of compensation to media companies for news content.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-07/prime-minister-defends-dutton-twitter-defamation-action/100522002">Morrison has claimed as much</a> when he said:</p>
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<p>We have been a world leader on this, and we intend to set the pace.</p>
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<p>But this wasn’t really a decisive victory; it was more like a negotiated ceasefire. The news media bargaining code is on the books, but has yet to be applied. The social media companies have instead negotiated arrangements separately and independently with news media providers. <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/facebook-snubs-sbs-the-conversation-on-content-deals-20210922-p58tpd.html">Some, including SBS and The Conversation, have missed out</a>.</p>
<p>Similarly, if Australia actually, as Morrison threatened, designated the tech giants as publishers, they would effectively be unable to operate here, due to the unrealistic task of pre-moderating all posted content for fear of constant defamation claims. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-push-to-make-social-media-companies-liable-in-defamation-is-great-for-newspapers-and-lawyers-but-not-you-127513">A push to make social media companies liable in defamation is great for newspapers and lawyers, but not you</a>
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<p>A proposed compromise, in which social media platforms take action against content that has been reported to them, would require them to assess an endless cacophony of defamation claims. Many could be spiteful nonsense. And any claim might take an expert court months to determine. </p>
<p>These operating conditions would be unbearable. I agree with Tama Leaver, a professor of internet studies at Curtin University, who said <a href="https://www.afr.com/technology/tech-giants-laughable-disinformation-solution-slammed-20211010-p58ys8">the tech giants would likely withdraw from Australia altogether</a>.</p>
<p>No level of self-congratulation is proof Australia can prevail against the tech giants. Despite the chest-thumping by our leaders, Australia cannot “set the pace”. The main game is always being played in Washington. Change, if possible, will have to come from there.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169826/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Damien Spry does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Holding social media companies to account for harmful content on their sites is legally difficult, due to two US laws that protects them from defamation penalties internationally.Damien Spry, Lecturer, University of South AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1275132019-11-22T02:08:04Z2019-11-22T02:08:04ZA push to make social media companies liable in defamation is great for newspapers and lawyers, but not you<p>At his Wednesday <a href="https://www.attorneygeneral.gov.au/media/speeches/address-national-press-club-canberra-20-november-2019">address to the National Press Club</a>, Attorney-General Christian Porter said the federal government is pursuing “immediate” defamation law reform.</p>
<p>The announcement seemed a bit odd, as defamation is a subject for state and territory governments to legislate on. A NSW-led law reform process has been ongoing for years.</p>
<p>Last June, the NSW Department of Justice <a href="https://www.justice.nsw.gov.au/justicepolicy/Documents/defamation-act-statutory-review-report.pdf">released a report</a> on its statutory review of the NSW legislation. In February, a further <a href="https://www.justice.nsw.gov.au/justicepolicy/Documents/review-model-defamation-provisions/Final-CAG-Defamation-Discussion-Paper-Feb-2019.pdf">discussion paper was published</a> by a NSW-led Defamation Working Party. </p>
<p>The theme of these documents, and the various <a href="https://www.justice.nsw.gov.au/defamationreview">public submissions that followed</a>, is that Australian defamation law is not suited to the digital age.</p>
<h2>Holding social media companies responsible as publishers</h2>
<p>Porter suggests we should “level the playing field” by <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/law-should-treat-social-media-companies-as-publishers-attorney-general-20191120-p53cch.html">holding social media companies responsible for defamation</a>. </p>
<p>Under current laws, liability depends on an entity being a “publisher” of defamatory content. A publisher is not the same as an author. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/can-you-sue-someone-for-giving-you-a-bad-reference-70520">Can you sue someone for giving you a bad reference?</a>
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<p>For example, a newspaper can be held liable for publishing a defamatory letter to the editor. This is why they have lawyers on staff, to ensure defamatory content is filtered. </p>
<p>Porter’s proposal seems to be that Facebook, Twitter and other social media companies be held to the same standards as traditional media companies such as <a href="https://www.newscorpaustralia.com/brands/">News Corp</a>.</p>
<p>This means, if you write something defamatory on Facebook, not only could you be sued, but Facebook could be too. </p>
<p>One way the government could make this happen is by amending the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2004A04989">Broadcasting Services Act 1992</a>. The Act essentially provides that state and territory laws have no effect to the extent they make “internet content hosts” liable. </p>
<p>This could mean “<a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/UNSWLJ/2014/2.html">internet intermediaries</a>”, including social media companies, have some protection from defamation law.</p>
<h2>The potential hurdles</h2>
<p>The proposal to make social media companies responsible for defamation is problematic for a few reasons. </p>
<p>First, it assumes these companies cannot currently be held responsible. If the recent <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/2019/06/25/court-rules-favour-voller-defamation-case-brought-against-media-outlets">Dylan Voller case</a> is anything to go by, perhaps they can. </p>
<p>In June, the <a href="https://jade.io/article/649085">NSW Supreme Court held</a> media companies such as Nationwide News (a News Corp subsidiary) could be responsible in defamation for posts by users on the Facebook pages of newspapers such as The Australian. The <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/episodes/facebook/11267410">contentious decision</a> is currently <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/push-for-overhaul-of-national-defamation-laws-to-weed-out-trivial-claims-20191120-p53cf5.html">being appealed</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/can-you-be-liable-for-defamation-for-what-other-people-write-on-your-facebook-page-australian-court-says-maybe-119352">Can you be liable for defamation for what other people write on your Facebook page? Australian court says: maybe</a>
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<p>Second, even if Australian defamation law allowed Facebook and Twitter to be held liable, how would you enforce such a judgement? </p>
<p>The companies behind these platforms are based overseas. Some are based in the United States, where <a href="https://www.eff.org/issues/cda230">section 230 of the Communications Decency Act</a> states “no provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider”. </p>
<p>Relying on this law, a US company subject to an Australian defamation judgement may simply ignore it. Or worse, it may get an order from an American court declaring it doesn’t have to comply. Google <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321417379_Douglas_M_2017_Google_challenges_the_Supreme_Court_of_Canada's_global_injunction_in_the_United_States_Gazette_of_Law_Journalism">has done this before</a>.</p>
<p>Third, a common theme of defamation reform rhetoric is that current laws are harsh on freedom of speech. If this reform goes through, plaintiffs will have high incentive to litigate: they’ll be able to reach into the deep pockets of tech companies. </p>
<p>Defamation lawyers will be licking their lips. Meanwhile, the change wouldn’t stop the average citizen who posts defamatory content from being sued. It may actually increase litigation against members of the public, sued in tandem with tech companies. </p>
<h2>Less trivial defamation claims</h2>
<p>Another reform flagged by Porter is the introduction of a threshold of serious harm, inspired by <a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2013/26/section/1/enacted">UK legislation introduced in 2013</a>. This means people who aren’t actually <a href="https://inforrm.org/2017/03/25/twitter-defamation-and-serious-harm-david-rolph/">seriously harmed</a> by defamation would no longer be able to sue.</p>
<p>This may see fewer petty claims clogging up the courts, which is good.</p>
<p>Disputes between regular people over social media mudslinging <a href="https://www.uts.edu.au/sites/default/files/article/downloads/Trends%20in%20Digital%20Defamation.pdf">form an increasing share of courts’ defamation work</a>. The law should assume we have thicker skin.</p>
<p>But arguably, we don’t need it. <a href="http://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/SydLawRw/2017/15.html">A few cases have already held</a> a publication that doesn’t cause serious harm is not “defamatory”. This proposal’s value is largely symbolic.</p>
<h2>More substantive reforms to look out for</h2>
<p>Porter flagged some other reforms that could have consequences. The way current legislation “caps” defamation damages, theoretically preventing huge awards of money, <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3285857">is controversial</a>. If that is changed, smaller damages awarded will mean less incentive to sue.</p>
<p>Porter also flagged a “public interest defence”, protecting responsible communication on a matter of public interest.</p>
<p>But <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/push-for-overhaul-of-national-defamation-laws-to-weed-out-trivial-claims-20191120-p53cf5.html">we kind of already have one</a>, called “qualified privilege”. How a new defence interacts with what we already have could pose tricky issues even lawyers may struggle with. When it comes to law reform, trickiness is not a virtue.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/defamation-in-the-digital-age-has-morphed-into-litigation-between-private-individuals-93739">Defamation in the digital age has morphed into litigation between private individuals</a>
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<p>In my view, the biggest issue to address is corporate defamation. Currently <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-20/before-you-write-that-scathing-online-review-beware-defamation/9566400">only small companies can sue</a>. This means McDonald’s can’t sue you for defamation over a harsh happy meal review. If this changes, freedom of speech could be massively curtailed.</p>
<h2>Getting the balance right is not easy</h2>
<p>There’s a lot of technical detail in defamation law, reflecting centuries of development. </p>
<p>Even Chief Justice Susan Kiefel <a href="https://sydney.edu.au/law/news-and-events/news/2016/10/03/the-definitive-book-on-australian-defamation-law.html">describes it as complex</a>. We all agree this area of law needs an update, but disagree on the best way forward. </p>
<p>In my view, enhancing media freedom is an important goal of the reform process. But that doesn’t mean we should get rid of defamation altogether.</p>
<p>In an environment where media power is dangerously concentrated in the hands of a few, defamation law is one of the few tools people have to protect themselves from destructive media commentary.</p>
<p>As Porter acknowledged, striking a balance between competing values, like freedom of speech and reputation, can be difficult. Whether these reforms will get it right remains to be seen.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/127513/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Douglas is a consultant at Bennett + Co, a defamation litigation firm in Perth, and editor of the Media & Arts Law Review, published by LexisNexis. He is a member of the ALP.</span></em></p>Defamation law reform is on the horizon. Social media companies may be held more liable for what they publish. But this could come at the expense of everyday users.Michael Douglas, Senior Lecturer in Law, The University of Western AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1070982018-11-25T09:16:51Z2018-11-25T09:16:51ZWhy ‘fair use’ is so important for South African copyright law<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246411/original/file-20181120-161612-yi2pvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">South Africa seeks to amend its outdated copyright legislation.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>“Fair use” is a doctrine <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2333863">adopted by some countries</a> that permits the use of copyright material like books, journals, music and art work – without requiring permission from the copyright holder. It provides a balance between the just demands of rights-holders and the need for people to use copyright material for education, research, in libraries and archives.</p>
<p>The reuse of copyright material is done within a framework of four criteria. These determine whether the proposed use is fair or not. If the user complies with these, they may go ahead and use the copyright work without permission from the rights-holder.</p>
<p>In the US, which entrenched the doctrine in its law in 1976, fair use has served citizens well. It has enabled the country’s creative industries <a href="https://www.ccianet.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Fair-Use-in-the-U.S.-Economy-2017.pdf">to grow exponentially</a> – so much so that the US <a href="https://www.trade.gov/topmarkets/pdf/Top%20Markets%20Media%20and%20Entertinment%202017.pdf">boasts</a> the largest and most successful filmed entertainment, music, book publishing, and video games in the world. </p>
<p>Despite these gains, “fair use” has <a href="http://www.samro.org.za/news/articles/copyright-alliance-petitions-parliament-over-proposed-new-law">its naysayers</a>. Now the debate has come to South Africa, as the country seeks to amend its outdated copyright legislation.</p>
<p>The country’s Copyright Amendment Bill has been redrafted several times since 2015. It has been discussed and debated over the past 15 months by the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry. In its latest draft, the Bill outlines several fair use provisions and exceptions for the educational, research and library sectors. </p>
<p>These have been largely <a href="https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/opinion/2017-08-04-fears-of-fair-use-law-being-used-to-rip-off-rights-holders-are-unfounded/">welcomed</a> in the higher education space and formally supported by many international and local organisations, institutions, teacher unions, NGOs, various creators, and libraries and archives. That’s because fair use provisions will facilitate better access to information and resource-sharing, along with other benefits like allowing accessible formats for persons with disabilities.</p>
<p>There’s also been fierce opposition to these provisions. Groups that object to the proposed changes would prefer to maintain what’s known as “<a href="https://libguides.wits.ac.za/c.php?g=145347&p=953446">fair dealing</a>” as the status quo. This is a legal doctrine that allows for an express, finite (closed) list of uses of copyright material without permission from the copyright holder. It’s far more restrictive in application than “fair use”.</p>
<p>The problem is that the status quo is outdated. Entrenching fair use in South African copyright law is a way to ensure the country steps firmly into the present and, ultimately, is able to move into the future. Fair use is “future-proof”. The US, for instance, has not needed to change its fair use provisions since 1976. That’s because the provisions already cater for new technologies, artificial intelligence and new developments that arise out of the fast-advancing fourth industrial revolution.</p>
<p>South Africa’s copyright law must not continue to ignore fair use.</p>
<h2>Not a piracy tool</h2>
<p>Several arguments have been levelled against fair use in South Africa and other parts of the world.</p>
<p>First, it’s been suggested that fair use offers carte blanche for infringing copyright owners’ rights. Some argue that, for instance, a university could buy one copy of a prescribed book and make copies for thousands of students, without compensating the author. But that’s not fair use; that’s copyright infringement, and it’s expressly forbidden according to the framework that governs fair use.</p>
<p>This framework consists of four criteria, which explore the following issues:</p>
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<li><p>the purpose and character of use</p></li>
<li><p>the nature of the copyrighted work</p></li>
<li><p>the amount and sustainability of the portion used; and,</p></li>
<li><p>the effect upon the rights-holder’s potential market.</p></li>
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<p>This framework allows copyright users to assess whether their reproduction, reuse or remixing of copyright works is lawful or not. </p>
<p>Some have also argued that fair use is in conflict with the <a href="http://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ip/berne/">Berne Convention</a>, an international agreement governing copyright that’s been in use for more than a century. That’s not the case. If it was, the US and other countries that have fair use in their copyright laws would have faced challenges by now under the Dispute Settlement Mechanism at the World Intellectual Property Organisation or other international forums that deal with copyright matters.</p>
<p>Fair use is a positive tool for users and producers of information, as it facilitates access and reuse of copyright works for various purposes, including creativity and innovation, without infringing copyright law. </p>
<p>As US Judge Pierre N. Leval <a href="http://www.pijip.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/103HarvLRev.pdf">puts it</a>:</p>
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<p>Fair use is not a grudgingly tolerated exception to the copyright owner’s rights of private property, but a fundamental policy of the copyright law. The stimulation of creative thought and authorship for the benefit of society depends assuredly on the protection of the author’s monopoly. But it depends equally on the recognition that the monopoly must have limits.</p>
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<h2>A “foreign” idea?</h2>
<p>Another <a href="http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2225-71602016000100008">argument</a> that’s been levelled against fair use specifically in South Africa is that the country will be importing a “foreign” copyright regime into its national legislation.</p>
<p>South African laws have been based on or influenced by foreign legislation for centuries. Why would adopting this piece of law – which works in the US and a number of other countries – be any different? In fact, the current “fair dealing” provisions are inherited from British colonial legislation, which makes them equally “foreign”.</p>
<p>South Africa is part of the global community. It cannot ignore legislative developments in other countries, particularly those that will bring them in line with global best practice.</p>
<h2>What is the next step?</h2>
<p>The latest draft of the Bill was approved by the parliamentary committee in November 2018. Next, it is due to go before the National Assembly, and possibly the National Council for Provinces, for further debate.</p>
<p>Hopefully this ongoing debate will encourage better, stronger fair use conditions rather than leaving South Africa far behind, and will ensure that the country has a fair and progressive Copyright Amendment Act in the near future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/107098/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Denise Rosemary Nicholson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>South Africa’s copyright law must not continue ignoring the principles of fair use.Denise Rosemary Nicholson, Scholarly Communications Librarian, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/955112018-05-07T07:13:36Z2018-05-07T07:13:36ZNews outlets air grievances and Facebook plays the underdog in ACCC inquiry<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217898/original/file-20180507-166906-1x6rsur.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The ACCC inquiry looks at the impact of digital platforms on the supply of news and journalistic content.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/sydney-australia-sept-16-2015-news-323543753?src=SjfttTTjJAiuUpFpH4WIAA-1-3">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The recent Cambridge Analytica scandal and congressional testimony of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has brought global attention to the power and influence of Facebook as a platform. It has also invigorated discussions about how such platforms should be regulated. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has been conducting an <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/about-us/inquiries/digital-platforms-inquiry">inquiry</a> into the influence of digital platforms on media and advertising markets in Australia.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/google-and-facebook-cosy-up-to-media-companies-in-response-to-the-threat-of-regulation-93730">Google and Facebook cosy up to media companies in response to the threat of regulation</a>
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<p>Submissions to the inquiry by a range of media outlets, advertisers, as well as Google and Facebook, were <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/about-us/inquiries/digital-platforms-inquiry/submissions-may-2018">published</a> last week. Although Facebook <a href="http://digg.com/2018/new-facebook-rules-political-ads">has expressed interest</a> in participating in regulatory debates, its submission is a disappointing early indication of how we might expect the company to downplay its magnitude and its roles in future regulatory debates. </p>
<h2>The purpose of the inquiry</h2>
<p>Late in 2017, the Federal Treasurer, Scott Morrison, directed the ACCC to conduct the <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/about-us/inquiries/digital-platforms-inquiry">inquiry into digital platforms</a>, including search engines, social networks and other aggregators. As part of the ongoing inquiry, the ACCC will consider:</p>
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<p>the impact of digital platforms on the supply of news and journalistic content and the implications of this for media content creators, advertisers and consumers.</p>
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<p>It came about as a result of negotiations between the government and the former independent Senator Nick Xenophon. Xenophon insisted on the inquiry in exchange for his support for the government’s <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-14/media-law-changes-bill-passes-senate/8946864">changes to Media Ownership laws</a>.</p>
<p>To some extent, the inquiry retreads familiar ground. Old anxieties about declining revenues for journalistic organisations and the advent of internet technologies and internet-focused stakeholders continue a conversation <a href="https://www.economist.com/node/7830218">that has been going for well over a decade</a>. </p>
<h2>News outlets air grievances</h2>
<p>In total, the ACCC published 57 submissions. This includes contributions from most major Australian media organisations, industry bodies, unions and advertisers.</p>
<p>Many respondents took the opportunity to criticise the narrow scope of the inquiry. The inquiry’s scope is somewhat frustrating considering the complexities digital platforms present. They impact not just media and journalism markets, but also aspects of political, social and everyday life. </p>
<p>While the <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/system/files/Australian%20Broadcasting%20Corporation%20%28April%202018%29.pdf">ABC’s submission</a> was generally favourable in its discussion of online platforms, other Australian media organisations used the inquiry as an opportunity to air grievances about the impact of digital platforms. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/government-regulation-of-social-media-would-be-a-cure-far-worse-than-the-disease-92008">Government regulation of social media would be a cure far worse than the disease</a>
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<p>News Corp accused the platforms of <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/industry-response-to-digital-inquiry/news-story/96f18fc7c2669a8aefd2bf7a2a464aa0">abusing the local market</a> and engaging in <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/system/files/News%20Corp%20Australia%20%28April%202018%29.pdf">anti-competitive practices</a>. Commercial Radio Australia pointed to <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/system/files/Commercial%20Radio%20Australia%20%28April%202018%29.pdf">a lack of regulation compelling transparent and structured audience metrics</a>. Nine complained of <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/system/files/Nine%20%28April%202018%29.pdf">declining revenues and a lack of platform-specific regulations</a>, while Foxtel raised the issue of <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/system/files/Foxtel%20%26%20Fox%20Sports%20%28April%202018%29.pdf">copyright infringement</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/system/files/Seven%20West%20Media%20%28April%202018%29.pdf">Seven West Media</a> and <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/system/files/Network%20Ten%20%28April%202018%29.pdf">Ten</a> argued that there is a barrier to entry imposed on traditional publishers by the significant existing collection of personal data that platforms like Facebook and Google can leverage. </p>
<h2>The platforms respond</h2>
<p>In their submissions, <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/system/files/Facebook%20Australia%20%28April%202018%29.pdf">Facebook</a> and <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/system/files/Google%20%28April%202018%29.pdf">Google</a> both attempted to build a narrative that emphasised how the tools and systems they provide can empower journalists and other content creators. Meanwhile, they minimised or outright ignored the opportunity to discuss the broader concerns of the broadcasters, publishers and individuals who are stakeholders in the industries Facebook and Google are operating in. </p>
<p>Google’s short response to the inquiry is not particularly interesting, in part due to its brevity and its focus on championing Google’s notionally positive influence for publishers. Facebook had significantly more to say in its 56 page submission, which also gives context to Mark Zuckerberg’s recent comments <a href="https://www.engadget.com/2018/04/12/mark-zuckerberg-facebook-regulation/">welcoming the potential for regulation</a>.</p>
<h2>Facebook plays the underdog</h2>
<p>Facebook’s submission reveals how the company portrays itself to regulators, with an interesting element of self-deprecation. Take for example, the statement that: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Facebook is popular, but it is just one small part of how Australians connect with friends, family and the world around us. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Given a user-base that dwarfs the population of, well, even the most populous countries, Facebook’s most compelling option for presenting itself as an underdog in this space is to compare itself by share of “attention”, rather than share of market. </p>
<p>Facebook presents “multi-homing” – the practice of having and using a variety apps on your phone – as a key concern. It paints a picture of precarity in <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/11/facebook-competition/">a marketplace that they dominate</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-regulate-facebook-and-the-online-giants-in-one-word-transparency-85765">How to regulate Facebook and the online giants in one word: transparency</a>
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<p>Facebook’s arguments about competition also ring hollow because the platform’s design and scale allows it to benefit from significant network effects. </p>
<p>Put simply, a network effect is when existing and new users benefit from the growth of a network. A familiar example of these effects can be seen in the services of mobile phone network providers. Telstra and Optus provide cheaper, or no-cost calls or messaging between customers of their own service. </p>
<p>But the similarities end there. While you could still call a friend with a competing mobile phone provider, there is no such interoperability with platforms like Facebook. This design helps Facebook protect its market power by keeping total control over the Facebook platfom’s network.</p>
<p>If you decide to leave Facebook, you sever the connections between yourself and other users of the platform. Given Facebook’s focus on augmenting social functions this can, quite literally, <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2018/4/28/17293056/facebook-deletefacebook-social-network-monopoly">be an ostracising endeavour</a>. In spite of both the recent <a href="https://theconversation.com/cambridge-analyticas-closure-is-a-pyrrhic-victory-for-data-privacy-96034">Cambridge Analytica revelations</a>, and several <a href="https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/vbx7zm/facebook-has-been-preparing-for-deletefacebook-for-more-than-a-decade">#deletefacebook</a> campaigns, we’re yet to see a significant exodus of users from the platform.</p>
<h2>A disappointing response</h2>
<p>Facebook has a colossal user base. <a href="https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2017/06/two-billion-people-coming-together-on-facebook/">Over two billion people use the platform each month</a>, and almost three quarters of those people use Facebook on a daily basis. It owns Instagram and WhatsApp – each of which are profoundly successful platforms in their own right. </p>
<p>Facebook is a titan of this industry, and the sooner it stops pretending to be a bit player, the richer our discourse about platforms and their role in society can become.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/95511/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Quodling works for Max Kelsen, a Queensland-based Machine Learning & Big Data firm.</span></em></p>Facebook has expressed interest in regulation, but its submission to the ACCC could be a disappointing early indication of how it will downplay its magnitude in future regulatory debates.Andrew Quodling, PhD candidate researching governance of social media platforms, Queensland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/803452017-07-14T00:09:54Z2017-07-14T00:09:54ZFive amazing books to read this summer<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177766/original/file-20170711-26274-1v84zw8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>This summer, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the publication of <em>Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone</em>, don’t re-read <em>Harry Potter</em>. Likewise for Gabriel García Márquez’s <em>One Hundred Years of Solitude</em>, which is commemorating its 50th anniversary this year. </p>
<p>Instead, embrace a little known fact about both books: their successes were prefaced with massive rejection. Twelve publishers rejected JK Rowling’s <em>Potter</em> before Bloomsbury agreed to an initial print run of just 500 copies. <em>One Hundred Years of Solitude</em> beat seemingly insurmountable odds before it was published. It was also <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/05/one-hundred-years-of-solitude-50-years-later/527118/">dismissed by literary elites the world over</a> before becoming a classic.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177957/original/file-20170712-19689-mk9i5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177957/original/file-20170712-19689-mk9i5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177957/original/file-20170712-19689-mk9i5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177957/original/file-20170712-19689-mk9i5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177957/original/file-20170712-19689-mk9i5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177957/original/file-20170712-19689-mk9i5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177957/original/file-20170712-19689-mk9i5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel was first rejected by a dozen publishers.</span>
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</figure>
<p>In a more recent example, Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Pulitzer Prize winning <em>The Sympathizer</em> (2015) was rejected by a baker’s dozen of publishers. The list goes on and on: In 1950, Anne Frank’s <em>The Diary of a Young Girl</em> was rejected by 15 publishers, with one explaining that “even if the work had come to light five years ago, when the subject was timely, I don’t see that there would have been a chance for it.” <em>Moby-Dick</em> was so bad it was supposed to end Herman Melville’s career. <em>Lord of the Flies</em> was rejected by 20 publishers and sold so poorly it was out of print within 18 months. After John Grisham’s first novel failed to sell, he promised his wife he’d give up writing after one more try. </p>
<p>For unknown writers, success is random. I’ve spent the last decade of my life <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Under-Cover-Production-Reception-Princeton-ebook/dp/B01N0TLBQZ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1498931159&sr=8-1&keywords=under+the+cover+clayton+childress">studying book publishers</a>, and everyone in the book publishing business knows how difficult it is to get published and to gain success. </p>
<p>During my research, Delia Falconer’s <em>The Lost Thoughts of Soldiers</em> (2006, Soft Skull Press) came up in a marketing and distribution meeting. On mention of the novel, the 20 or so people around the room let out sighs of agony and grief. Falconer’s book, the book they all adored so much, had failed to find the audience they agreed it deserved. They loved it so much that while publishing and promoting it they had suspended what they knew: all hits are flukes. For books, quality and success are, at best, distant cousins of one another.</p>
<p>So, when picking books to read this summer, don’t reach for <em>Harry Potter</em> or <em>One Hundred Years of Solitude</em>. Rowling and Márquez don’t need you. Instead, spend your time reading authors who do need you: the future Rowlings’ and Marquez’s whom fate has yet to shine on.</p>
<h2>Five amazing books to read this summer:</h2>
<p>Here are my recommendations for fiction, nonfiction and poetry, for which deserved attention is just starting to shine:</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177960/original/file-20170712-12241-1hnw82p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177960/original/file-20170712-12241-1hnw82p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177960/original/file-20170712-12241-1hnw82p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177960/original/file-20170712-12241-1hnw82p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177960/original/file-20170712-12241-1hnw82p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177960/original/file-20170712-12241-1hnw82p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177960/original/file-20170712-12241-1hnw82p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption"><em>In the Distance</em> is a great travelogue about a 19th century Swedish immigrant.</span>
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</figure>
<p><strong><em>In the Distance</em> by Hernán Díaz (Fiction, Coffee House Press):</strong> The independent Coffeehouse Press is best known for its literary fiction, but publisher Chris Fischbach is a fan of westerns. He was tipped off to Díaz’s unpublished manuscript when an acquaintance recommended it to him for his off-hours pleasure reading. He loved it so much he decided he had to publish it. <em>In the Distance</em> tells the story of a 19th century Swedish immigrant who seems to be the only person in the United States travelling West-to-East during a time of Westward expansion. Like all great travelogues it’s nominally about a quest to get somewhere and find someone, while really being about the journey.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178119/original/file-20170713-12241-6c483k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178119/original/file-20170713-12241-6c483k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=904&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178119/original/file-20170713-12241-6c483k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=904&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178119/original/file-20170713-12241-6c483k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=904&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178119/original/file-20170713-12241-6c483k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1136&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178119/original/file-20170713-12241-6c483k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1136&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178119/original/file-20170713-12241-6c483k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1136&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"><em>Making a Global City</em> celebrates the diversity of Toronto.</span>
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</figure>
<p><strong><em>Making a Global City: How One Toronto School Embraced Diversity</em> by Robert Vipond (Nonfiction, University of Toronto Press):</strong> In an age of Trump and Brexit, Canada is globally exceptional, and on our 150th birthday it’s something that shouldn’t just be celebrated repeatedly in the pages of <em>The New York Times</em>. It should be celebrated on your bookshelf too. Do so with Vipond’s exquisite micro-history of Canadian immigration, all told through the changing demographics of Toronto’s 129 year old Clinton Street Junior Public School.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178121/original/file-20170713-4303-q7zore.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178121/original/file-20170713-4303-q7zore.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178121/original/file-20170713-4303-q7zore.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178121/original/file-20170713-4303-q7zore.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178121/original/file-20170713-4303-q7zore.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178121/original/file-20170713-4303-q7zore.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178121/original/file-20170713-4303-q7zore.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"><em>Full-Metal Indigiqueer</em> is a celebrated collection of poetry.</span>
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<p><strong><em>Full-Metal Indigiqueer</em> by Joshua Whitehead (Poetry, Talonbooks):</strong> This first full-length book of poetry by Oji-Cree poet Joshua Whitehead uses a two-spirit trickster figure to take on and challenge literary and pop culture works to re create space in storytelling in an irreverent and creative way. With appearances from everyone from William Shakespeare to Peter Pan, catch up on Whitehead’s poetry in preparation for his YA novel that should be out soon too. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178124/original/file-20170713-15666-rgy8ib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178124/original/file-20170713-15666-rgy8ib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178124/original/file-20170713-15666-rgy8ib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178124/original/file-20170713-15666-rgy8ib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178124/original/file-20170713-15666-rgy8ib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1137&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178124/original/file-20170713-15666-rgy8ib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1137&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178124/original/file-20170713-15666-rgy8ib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1137&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Author Margaret Wilkerson Sexton took the year off to write this future literary classic.</span>
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<p><strong><em>A Kind of Freedom</em> by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton (Fiction, Counterpoint Press):</strong> When Sexton’s law firm declared bankruptcy, she found herself with twelve months and a partially paid leave, which she used to write <em>A Kind of Freedom</em>. In the novel, Sexton lays out how racism, colorism and structural inequality pushes a high-income, multiracial New Orleans family into poverty across three generations. Twelve months to write can be the difference between a future literary classic existing or not. One year off to write was also the gift that airline ticketing agent Harper Lee was given by well-heeled friends in 1956, resulting in <em>To Kill A Mockingbird</em>.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178123/original/file-20170713-7112-15cv39r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178123/original/file-20170713-7112-15cv39r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=897&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178123/original/file-20170713-7112-15cv39r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=897&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178123/original/file-20170713-7112-15cv39r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=897&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178123/original/file-20170713-7112-15cv39r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1127&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178123/original/file-20170713-7112-15cv39r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1127&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178123/original/file-20170713-7112-15cv39r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1127&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption"><em>The Handover</em> explains the survival techniques of CanLit in the face of multinational conglomerates.</span>
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<p><strong><em>The Handover</em> by Elaine Dewar (Nonfiction, Biblioasis):</strong> Upon retirement, most of the scions of mid-20th Century literary publishing used the same exit strategy. After spending decades teetering on the brink of financial insolvency, they sold off their presses to multinational conglomerates. Canada’s storied McClelland & Stewart was a bit different. To survive long enough to reach international scale, it needed CanLit subsidies via government intervention. Dewar’s story is an engaging tale of a uniquely Canadian boondoggle, in which literary, academic and financial elites coordinated to skirt federal law and transfer Canadian cultural wealth to the largest conglomerate publisher in the world.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/80345/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Clayton Childress does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When picking books to read this summer, reach out for the unknown. Here are five expert recommendations for fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, for which deserved attention is just starting to shine.Clayton Childress, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.