Intellectual Property News...

Publishers Weekly Daily has an article based on an alert from the Author's Guild to its membership, reporting that Simon and Schuster has added new contract language which says a book will not revert to an author's control, for as long as S&S retains an electronic copy in their computer system. "Under the new contract S&S considers a book to be in print, and under its control, so long as it's available in any form, even if no copies are available to be ordered by traditional bookstores." In its alert, the guild emphasized these points: (1) if an author signs the new contract, S&S "will say you're wed to them. Your book will live and die with this particular conglomerate"; (2) authors are advised to explore other options, since no other publisher is seeking the irrevocable grant of rights that S&S is; and (3) if a book is being auctioned, S&S should be excluded from the proceedings unless it agrees to use standard terms."

Galleycat has a discussion with further links, and a followup.