Month: February 2026

Shssh! It’s the Silent Book Club

A diverse group of five people standing in front of a clear blue sky, each with a finger to their lips, signaling for silence or a secret.

Image: Shutterstock.com

I don’t remember when I first heard about silent book clubs (it was fairly recently) but I was delighted to find out through LinkedIn that one existed in my hometown. I have never been a member of a book club, although my wife is a member of at least two, or is it three? I have always been chary of making the commitment to read a certain amount of content by a set date, given how easily distracted I am by the normal run of events, and so have never stepped up to join one. (As an aside, I am delighted that my wife enjoys them though, because periodically she hosts one of her groups at our home with the happy result that after everyone leaves, there is lots of leftover home baking to enjoy). But I digress. One of the advantages of the silent book club format is that there is no commitment to read a certain book by a certain date. You can read whatever you want, at your pace, and simply show up to discuss your book, (or not), and learn about others.

According to the website Silent Book Club (trademark registered, apparently), it all started in San Francisco in 2012 (although I suspect the format has been going on for much longer than that). There is a community of over 2000 chapters in more than 60 countries ranging from Iceland to Indonesia. You can go on to the website to find one in your community. While there you can also order a BYOB (Bring Your Own Book) hat or sign up for a book reading retreat in Italy or Hawaii.

Silent book clubs are supposedly attractive to introverts, and it is true that reading a book can be a pleasurable solitary experience not necessarily shared openly with others. But it can also be a social experience; think of Grandma and Grandpa silently rocking by the fire while they read their books together(maybe in silence broken only by the ticking of the wall clock) or people congregating in libraries to read in each others’ company (silently). In the case of silent book clubs, after a period of quiet reading participants are encouraged to share with others information on the book they are reading, but there is no pressure to do so. So how does it work in practice?

A couple of weeks ago, my wife and I decided to kick the tires on our own Silent Book Club in town. We were informed it would gather at a local bistro at 2 pm and that is where we showed up, ready to go. It wasn’t hard to find the gathering because of the noise. It was the most unsilent silent book club imaginable. Animated people were busy introducing themselves, ordering coffee (or stronger tipples), and generally enjoying themselves. There were about 30 people in all, although only 4 of them were men. Good odds. The coordinator came around and took note of everyone’s book and then set the timer. Silence fell, only to be broken by the occasional slurp of coffee and the rustle of the turned page. Of all those present, I only noticed one person using an e-reader, which I found a bit surprising given the growing popularity of digital books, as I discussed in a recent blog post. A few had what were obviously library books, outed by their bar codes on the covers, but most people seemed to have turned up with a purchased paperback edition of their current favourite. I was astounded at how quickly the hour of quiet reading went by. Then it was time to break into small groups and discuss our respective books. This I found to be the most interesting part of the experience.

There were 4 women and one other man in my group. Both my male colleague and I were reading non-fiction, but all the women were into fiction. I was and am reading He Did Not Conquer, the recent book written by Canadian journalist Madeleine Drohan about Benjamin Franklin’s obsession with having Canada (then mostly the settled area around Montreal and Quebec City, populated primarily by French-speaking merchants, habitants and clergy) join what became the United States. While everyone knows that Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, the book traces his long obsession with “Canada” because of the presence of a large, predominantly ethnic French population professing, in the parlance of the day, “Popish” beliefs, and the threat he believed they posed to the English-speaking colonies and later the US. Even before the Declaration of Independence in 1776 a ragtag American army had captured Montreal and attacked Quebec City (on December 31, 1775), only to be driven off. Franklin spent some time in Montreal in April and May, 1776, trying unsuccessfully to convince the locals to join the revolutionary cause. That was my book, certainly relevant today given the current 51st state rhetoric from Donald Trump. The other non-fiction work was For the Sun After Long Nights: The Story of Iran’s Women-Led Uprising, by Fatemeh Jamalpour and Nilo Tabrizy, also extremely topical given what is happening in Iran today.

The books being read by my female companions were equally eclectic. They included Yellowface by Asian-American writer Rebecca F. Kuang, a complicated story of plagiarism and self-justification apparently and a Canadian novel by Elizabeth Hay, set in Yellowknife, NWT, titled Late Nights on Air. Another was a Freida McFadden mystery (I forget which one, but it inspired me to go and see the movie The Housemaid based on one of her books). The final book was The Island of Sea Women, by Lisa See, which is a story of female friendship set in Korea’s Jeju Island. It features two haenyeo, females who dive (traditionally without assistance of breathing apparatus) for abalone, woven with a story of Japanese occupation and collaboration. This is a pretty impressive Asian background setting for an American writer although Lisa See has written a number of books with oriental themes. So there you have it, a microcosm of what people are reading just from my small discussion group. It was an interesting range of interests and topics and I learned quite a bit.  My wife and I think we’ll be back again next month. Group reading, even silently, is fun and can be very social. Why not give it a try?

© Hugh Stephens, 2026. 

Chinese (or is it Lunar?) New Year and Copyright

A festive design featuring a red background with gold and floral decorations, celebrating the Happy New Year 2026, themed around the Year of the Horse.

Image: Shutterstock

The China Media Group, (CMG) one of the world’s largest broadcasters, has just issued an announcement warning everyone, but mostly I suppose the Chinese-speaking world, that it retains the sole authority to license globally the mascots, logo, and creative products of its 2026 Spring Festival Gala, for both commercial and non-commercial purposes. According to this website, the Gala program which is broadcast each year in China on the eve of the Lunar New Year, “has been recognized by Guinness World Records as the most-watched annual television program on the planet”. Even bigger than the Super Bowl! This year, the Year of “Fire Horse”, the Gala will feature “four majestic ponies”. These equine mascots are apparently, “inspired by classic representations of horses across different periods of Chinese history” and are “adorned with classic elements of traditional Chinese clouds and thunder”. You’ve been warned. Don’t copy them. If you want to watch all the action, you can view the show here. (Check out the dancing warrior robots. If that doesn’t send a shiver down your spine, nothing will).

While using horse images to depict the Year of the Horse cannot, of course, be copyrighted, the CMG will have copyright on the specific horse designs it is using for its mascots. Lunar New Year (or should it be called “Chinese New Year”?) is big business, as hundreds of millions of people will be celebrating it. Gold coins and bars will be struck for collectors and countries around the world, from the US to the Isle of Man, will be issuing Chinese New Year animal-themed postage stamps. (The Hong Kong Postal Museum has a hilarious post outlining the political machinations surrounding the Year of the Pig postage stamp issued in 1970 by the British colonial authorities). From broadcasts to banquets, from music to mascots, the Sinosphere (and by that I also include Chinatowns around North America and the world) will go into a red-hued frenzy this year beginning on New Year’s Eve, February 16, and continuing for 16 days thereafter. The holiday period in China marks one of the most intense short term urban-to-rural migrations of people anywhere, with family members traditionally returning home to visit parents, children and other relatives and to perform traditional ceremonies. Rooted in tradition, this migration sees about 300 million people move from one end of China to the other. Rail networks in particular are strained to the limit. Visit China at some other time if you want to go there.

Entrepreneurial merchants will be quick to market equine-based trinkets and paraphernalia this year, and knockoffs of the CMG “majestic ponies” will no doubt be popular in flea markets around China. So just as Hasbro protects the copyright and trademarks on its “My Little Pony” franchise, CMG is sending warning that it will assert its rights, as it should.

Music is another area where copyright could come into play as people create New Year’s videos. This website (Soundstripe) has made a virtue of a necessity by plugging its royalty-free songs and playlists for “Festive Lunar New Year Videos”. And while we are on the topic, should the holiday be called “Lunar New Year” or “Chinese New Year”? It is of course based on the lunar calendar but also tied to the centuries old Chinese zodiac, with its 12 year animal based cycle.

The problem with the “Chinese New Year” (CNY) label, widely used in North America, is that it imposes a Chinese label on similar celebrations in other parts of East Asia, notably Korea (where it’s called Seollal) and Vietnam (where it’s called Tết), that also celebrate the holiday. China historically had a huge cultural influence over both countries which explains the common tradition, but in this day of political correctness (not to mention the Sino-Vietnam war in 1979 and ongoing difficult political relations between South Korea and China), it can be impolitic to refer to the holiday as “Chinese”. Korean-Australian K-pop artist Danielle Marsh found out the hard way when she asked her fans what they were doing for “Chinese” New Years. She had to apologize for the faux pas. This is all somewhat of a tempest in a teapot because its not even called Chinese New Year in China, where the holiday is referred to as “Spring Festival” (chun jie).

As noted, this is the Year of the (Fire) Horse, which is supposed to indicate resilience, progress and, of course prosperity. The zodiac is a goldmine for fortune-tellers and geomancers who are happy (for a fee) to provide advice to individuals based on their personal sign as to how to comport themselves in the Year of the Horse, Dragon, Snake, Monkey or whatever. Some animals are more propitious than others. Dragons are considered to be an elite sign, and who wants to be a Pig? However, all have their good and bad characteristics. For prospective Chinese couples, figuring out the compatibility of say, a Rat and a Rabbit, can be important not to mention how the Year of the Horse will affect that relationship.

Having been born in the Year of the Monkey, I was eager to find out what was in store for me in 2026, since horses and monkeys don’t seem to have much in common. I was relieved to learn from this zodiac website that “Monkeys enjoy romance and wealth opportunities in 2026, though career stress tests patience. With resilience and clear financial management, challenges turn into steady progress.” That is reassuring although I am not sure that my wife will be thrilled to hear of my “romance opportunities”. Wealth maybe.

Not much of this has a lot to do with copyright, but it is fun to write about traditions and festivals, and CNY is particularly fertile when it comes to images, music, food, design and other creative endeavours that make up the world of copyright. So, enjoy it. Hang up some red lanterns, put up red decals of harmonious characters, and eat some dumplings. However, if you are inclined to create some Year of the Horse images, make sure you don’t infringe the designs and mascots of the China Media Group. They have a long arm and just might come after you.

© Hugh Stephens, 2026. All Rights Reserved.  

Libraries Are Complaining About the Cost of Licensing E-Books (Again): Is There Any Justification?

An e-book reader displaying the text 'E-BOOK What book you will read today?' next to a stack of hardcover books and an open book.

Image: Shutterstock.com

Is it a coincidence that a story complaining about the cost of e-books in the budget of the Greater Victoria Public Library (GVPL) appeared in my local paper, the Times-Colonist, earlier this month only to be followed mere days later by an almost identical story that popped up in a news scan service I receive, but this time relating to the Washington, DC, Public Library? I suspect not. In the case of the GVPL, the library has to shell out $57.00 for a two-year licence for an e-book that costs $14.99 for an individual licence. Both the Canadian Library Association and its US counterpart, the American Library Association, have had this issue on their agenda for a few years now. The Canadian Urban Libraries Council, which represents more than fifty of the largest public library systems in Canada, has a Digital Content Working Group that advocates for “equitable, affordable, and sustainable access to digital content for public libraries across Canada.” Who could argue with that? But there is always a devil hiding in the detail.

The major difference between the two stories was that the GVPL was simply lamenting the budgetary impact of licensing e-books, which are in popular demand from borrowers, whereas the US story not only raised the cost issue for libraries but also referred to a local legislative initiative that would authorize market intervention by imposing restrictions on the District’s public library system, preventing it from licensing e-books from publishers that reportedly charge “excessive prices”. But what is excessive and what is reasonable when it comes to e-books, and can or should governments intervene in the market to regulate the price of a discretionary product like a book?

The DC legislation has not been adopted and if it passes, it may still never go into effect since it contains a proviso that implementation will take place only once ten other jurisdictions with a combined population of at least 50 million have enacted substantially similar laws. This is apparently to protect the DC Council from lawsuits and to try to build a national coalition to negotiate collectively with publishers. It also avoids the very real possibility that publishers could opt to not license e-books to the District of Columbia Public Library system. The bill would actually hurt libraries and their patrons by prohibiting the DC library system from entering into and renewing licensing agreements with publishers if those agreements contain terms that “restrict public access to books.” What does “restricting public access” mean? Are publishers not legally entitled to determine the terms under which their product is offered to various categories of users? Should publishers be legally required to license their product on terms arbitrarily set by government? Most licensing agreements, which are contracts, impose conditions governing how a licensed product can be used by different categories of users, such as (for a library) the number of times it can be loaned and how long the agreement lasts before it lapses and must be renewed. These terms are set by the entity offering the product, i.e. the publisher. There is no obligation on any prospective licensee to accept the terms. Products that are priced beyond what the market will accept will not succeed. The argument of the library community seems to be that libraries are somehow different, a public good, and therefore they should pay what individual consumers pay even though their use of the product is quite different.

The outline of the DC bill states that restricting public access includes “inflating” costs beyond what the public pays. Under standard licensing terms for digital books offered to the public, aka Joe and Jill Consumer, they pay less than libraries do for access to the same work. This has been the case for e-books since the early days of digital content, and it is not difficult to understand why. When a library buys a hard copy book, which it can do for the same price as the consumer (in fact, usually for less since library systems buy in volume and thus enjoy discounts), it can expect to lend that book for a limited period before it wears out and a replacement has to be purchased. There are other risks as well when hard copy works are circulated on loan, such as loss and damage. Moreover, while he majority of borrowers (in Victoria it is 55%) still generally prefer to borrow a hard copy version, there is “friction” in borrowing a physical book that limits the number of times a work is taken out. This friction is the unavoidable time and cost of physically accessing a library, such as parking or transit costs, deterrence from inclement weather or just sheer laziness. E-books, on the other hand, can be accessed with a click of a mouse. Each copy is perfect. No dog-eared or missing pages here. No borrowing “friction”.

While “friction” is an undesirable byproduct of the traditional library system, imposing constraints on borrowing physical products for some, from a commercial perspective it imposes a reasonable limit on use. The absence of “friction” where digital products are concerned not only makes things easier for the borrower, but it also reduces costs in other areas for libraries. E-books require virtually no physical storage space, and while some clients will go to a library to access an e-book, many do so remotely, thus reducing physical visitorship and the need for extended hours, etc. One of the key arguments put forward by publishers to justify the higher cost of e-book licences to libraries is that individual consumers cannot circulate digital copies to others (unless they physically lend the device on which their e-book is loaded) whereas lending to multiple users is the essential function of a library. An e-book licensed by a library for lending to multiple users is, in effect, a different product from the single-use product licensed to an individual consumer. Moreover the “perfect-every-time” perennial nature of an e-book eliminates the need for any book replacement over time. Combined with potential savings gained in other areas, the pleas of public libraries to have legislators impose restrictions on publishers have to be seen in context. That said, I am sure this will not stop library associations from trying to convince legislators to tilt negotiations in their favour.

The DC Council is modelling its legislation on a similar law passed last year in Connecticut. Like DC’s draft law, the Connecticut legislation will come into effect only when another state or states totalling seven million in population enact similar laws. For the record, Connecticut has a population of about 3.6 million people. Neighbouring New York state has a population of 20 million so if it goes the same route, the ball will start rolling. The caution of both DC and smaller jurisdictions like Connecticut is understandable because one response from publishers to legislation that restricts their ability to offer industry-standard contracts/licensing agreements could be non-availability of e-books for libraries in the affected areas. Libraries need to be careful what they wish for, since a heavy-handed approach by legislators could backfire.

Connecticut claims its legislation avoids the legal pitfalls that befell a 2022 law passed in Maryland that was blocked, on appeal from the American Association of Publishers and the Authors Guild, because the state law impinged on US federal copyright law. That state law required authors and publishers holding the rights to an e-book title to, among other things, offer unlimited copies of that title to public libraries in the state at an undetermined “reasonable price” when the title was offered to individual consumers. In effect it was tantamount to imposing a compulsory license on rightsholders and was rightly blocked by the courts. I wrote a long blog post on the e-book licensing situation at that time. You can read it here.

While the Maryland approach was overreach, the issue hasn’t gone away. Library budgets are under stress but that should not be used as an excuse to force subsidization from authors and publishers. As mentioned above, e-books never wear out and a widely circulated “frictionless” library e-book is not a direct substitute for the hard copy work that libraries used to buy–and still buy but in lesser amounts. It is a different product and to compare it to a hard copy book is to ignore commercial realities. While libraries are a public good, they still operate in the marketplace and affect the market for books, in some ways positively and in others negatively. Governments normally put their thumb on the scale of commercial negotiations only when there is market failure. This is far from the case today. The case for market intervention by government is weak, although I sympathize with the plight of acquisition librarians facing stretched budgets and trying to meet the increasing demand for e-books.

There are market limits to what publishers can charge libraries for e-books just there are market limits regarding what public libraries can pay. What is the appropriate licensing fee for an e-book configured for library use versus one sold to the individual reader? Is a multiple of three or four justified, or should it be less (or more?). An objective study would be helpful. Let’s hope there is room for negotiation that will fairly compensate authors and publishers while allowing public libraries to meet the growing demand of their clients for more digital works.

© Hugh Stephens 2026. All Rights Reserved

Canadians (and Anyone Else Outside the US): Beware the Annual Public Domain Hype

A black and white cartoon character resembling a mouse, wearing a hat and shorts, happily steering a ship's wheel.

Image: Public Domain

This is the time of year (the days and weeks after January 1) when, on a quiet news day, lazy journalists in Canada used to pick up and amplify a US based story about such and such a work falling out of copyright and into the public domain and write a story about it, complete with a grabbing headline, often to the effect that Mickey Mouse or Batman or The Great Gatsby or whoever is now “liberated from the chains of copyright”. The CBC did exactly that in 2024, producing a radio special on Steamboat Willie entering the public domain, completely ignoring the fact that all works created by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks (which include the earliest editions of Steamboat) had already entered the public domain in Canada two years earlier, on January 1, 2022. Iwerks was co-author and joint rightsholder along with Disney for this work and as the co-author who lived the longest (he died in 1971; Disney in 1966) the term of copyright protection in Canada was based on the year he died plus, at the time, an additional 50 years. Thus, January 1, 2022 in Canada. As I wrote a couple of years ago (Canada is not the United States when it comes to Copyright: The Cases of Anne of Green Gables and Steamboat Willie (or Down the Copyright Rabbithole, Twice), sometimes works still under copyright protection in Canada are in the public domain in the US, and sometimes it is the reverse. Don’t assume. This law firm’s blog post (Gowlings) provides a good overview of what to watch out for.

The mistake of making the assumption that what happens in the US is automatically applicable to Canada is the unfortunate reality of being a cultural minnow living cheek by jowl with a content creation whale. This year I didn’t notice any of the reflected US public domain stories in the Canadian media, perhaps because the penny has finally dropped that public domain day in Canada will be a non-event until the year 2043 (no need for any hype), owing to the extension of Canada’s term of copyright protection from the life of the author plus 50 years to life plus 70 (for most works). Any works that had fallen into the public domain under Canada’s previous “life plus 50” term did not receive the additional term of protection but any works still copyright protected in Canada at the end of 2022 got another twenty years coverage before entering the public domain. Had Ub Iwerks died in 1972 instead of a year earlier, Steamboat Willie would have enjoyed another two decades of protection in Canada beyond what applies in the US, although it is doubtful whether the Walt Disney Company would have tried to enforce its rights under Canadian law.

Not only has Canada harmonized its current term of copyright protection with the US, EU, UK, and a number of other countries, (although there will always be discrepancies between the terms of protection afforded works in Canada versus those in the US for many years to come owing to the historical peculiarities of how the term of protection is calculated under US copyright law), there have also been fewer quiet news days in early 2026 thanks to the daily Donald Trump Reality Show. Moreover, there has been a surge in Canadian nationalism (and thus a greater awareness of cultural differences) as a result of the Donald’s 51st state taunts. (Prime Minister Mark Carney, an internationally recognized banker and financial executive seemed initially to enjoy Trump’s respect but since his Davos speech calling out the realities of the new world order, Carney, like his predecessor Justin Trudeau, has been demoted to the title of “Governor Carney” on Truth Social, apparently the current official channel for announcements of US government policy). So, journalists, if you want to write about what makes Canada different from the US, in addition to measuring distance in kilometers and saying “sorry” every time someone bumps into you, you could note that US and Canadian copyright laws are different. Similar in intent but not identical. For example, the US fair use doctrine with its unpredictable focus on transformative use does not apply in Canada, the US requirement for formal registration of copyright in order to bring legal action does not apply in Canada and, in particular, the complex (because of its convoluted history) US determination of when a particular work falls into the public domain does not apply in Canada.

This year, as it does every year, the Center for the Study of the Public Domain at Duke University’s Law School, published its Public Domain Day blog, highlighting all the works that fell into the US public domain on January 1, 2026. These include such well known works or characters as Agatha Christie’s The Murder at the Vicarage (protected in Canada until January 1, 2043) , Somerset Maugham’s Cakes and Ale (in the public domain in Canada since 2016), Blondie and Dagwood, nine additional Mickey Mouse cartoons, Dutch artist Piet Mondrian’s Composition No. II/Composition in Red, Blue, and Yellow, four songs by Ira and George Gershwin, and so on. Much is made of the fact that these works will be free to anyone to use, remix, copy and exploit but it’s not as if these works have been locked away in a closet, although their unlicensed use has been protected by copyright law. Copyright protection does not stop anyone from creating new works and while there may be limitations on hijacking Inspector Poirot there is nothing stopping aspiring writers from creating detective novels. There is another element worth noting as well. Particularly when it comes to copyrighted characters and cartoons, their later iterations may still be copyright protected in the US (because of the US baseline being date of publication plus a set number of years) not to mention protection offered by registered trademarks. Sometimes estates try to hang on to copyright protection at all costs, as appears to be happening in the US with Mondrian’s work. (It has been in the public domain in Canada since 1995, 50 years after Mondrian’s passing).

Once a work has entered the public domain it can be used in derivative works without permission. Has this resulted in a slate of new and creative works being produced for the benefit of mankind? Hardly. The usual result is for a brief surge of “edgy” productions incorporating a new public domain work, such as Steamboat Willie doing or saying things that Dear Old Uncle Walt (Disney) would never have countenanced. As I noted a couple of years ago, the “liberation” of copyright protected works has led to such triumphs as The Gay Gatsby, The Great Gatsby Undead (Zombie Edition) and the film Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey. So much for the public domain unleashing the juices of creativity.

For better or worse, copyright is not a perpetual property right. I support reasonable limitations on copyright protection including making a provision for works to enter the public domain after their prime exploitability has passed. This will vary by work with some works remaining evergreen, encouraging new investment into derivative works, updates, new editions, as well as providing ongoing returns to the estates of authors. However, at times there are situations where a work is long out of print and the rights-holder cannot be located, blocking a reprint. These situations can be dealt with through specific exceptions, much as fair use and fair dealing allow for specified unauthorized uses that do not damage the rights of the author.

To come back to the narrative that the public domain liberates content from the “shackles of copyright”, I contend this is nonsense. Beware the hype. And if you reside outside the US, don’t believe everything you read in the media regarding what works are in the public domain. You might be pleasantly surprised to find that a work has been in the public domain in your country for years (while Conan Doyle’s later works only entered the US public domain in 2023, they have been in the public domain in Canada since 1981). On the other hand, you might find the work you thought was free for adaptation based on what Duke University’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain says is way off base and it is still protected by copyright in your country of residence. Beware the hype and do your homework.

© Hugh Stephens, 2026. All Rights Reserved.