The Association of American Publishers (AAP) is the national trade association of the American

book publishing Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...

industry. AAP lobbies for book, journal and education publishers in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. AAP members include most of the major commercial publishers in the United States, as well as smaller and nonprofit publishers, university presses, and scholarly societies. Patricia Schroeder, a former

United States representative The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...

, served as the association's CEO from 1997 until 2009, taking over the role from Nicholas A. Veliotes. On May 1, 2009, another former United States representative, Tom Allen, took over as president and CEO. In January 2017, Maria Pallante, a former United States Register of Copyrights, became the president and CEO of the organization.

Activities

The association's core programs deal primarily with advocacy related to:

intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, co ...

; new technology and digital issues of concern to publishers; the freedom to read,

censorship Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governmen ...

and

libel Defamation is a communication that injures a third party's reputation and causes a legally redressable injury. The precise legal definition of defamation varies from country to country. It is not necessarily restricted to making assertions ...

; the freedom to publish; funding for

education Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...

and

libraries A library is a collection of Book, books, and possibly other Document, materials and Media (communication), media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or electron ...

; postal rates and regulations; tax and trade policy; and international

copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive legal right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, ...

enforcement. AAP tracks publisher revenue on a monthly and annual basis with its StatShot programs. The association has also awarded books, journals, and electronic content through its annual PROSE Awards since 1976. In August 2019, AAP sued

Audible Audible may refer to: * Audible (service), an online audiobook store * Audible (American football), a tactic used by quarterbacks * ''Audible'' (film), a short documentary film featuring a deaf high school football player * Audible finish or ru ...

for its Captions feature, through which machine-generated text could be displayed alongside audio narration. The lawsuit was settled in February 2020, with Audible agreeing not to implement the Captions feature without obtaining express permission.

Controversies

The AAP initially supported the arrest of Dmitry Sklyarov. AAP was criticized after it contracted Eric Dezenhall's

crisis management Crisis management is the process by which an organization deals with a disruptive and unexpected event that threatens to harm the organization or its stakeholders. The study of crisis management originated with large-scale industrial and envi ...

firm to promote its position regarding the

open access Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which nominally copyrightable publications are delivered to readers free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 de ...

movement. Schroeder told ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'' “the association hired Dezenhall when members realized they needed help. ‘We thought we were angels for a long time and we didn't need PR firms.’” In 2020, AAP released press statements to support four of its members in the case of '' Hachette v. Internet Archive'' (IA). President Maria Pallante said of the case, "As the complaint outlines, by illegally copying and distributing online a stunning number of literary works each day, IA displays an abandon shared only by the world’s most egregious pirate sites." This action was opposed by the

Electronic Frontier Foundation The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is an American international non-profit digital rights group based in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1990 to promote Internet civil liberties. It provides funds for legal defense in court, ...

, Public Knowledge, and the

Association of Research Libraries The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit organization of 125 research library at comprehensive, research institutions in Canada and the United States. ARL member libraries make up a large portion of the academic and research li ...

References

External links

*
Finding aid to Association of American Publishers records at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
{{authority control Publishing companies of the United States Publishing-related professional associations

Activities

Controversies

See also

References

External links