Authors’ and bookstores’ associations finalize an agreement to share information on the numbers of copies sold and to improve the system on the settlement of rights.

The distrust between authors and publishers regarding book sales is nothing new, but the responsibility to settle on the "traceability" of book sales is. This requirement was imposed in the last reform of the Law on Intellectual Property, in article 177, which the European Parliament directive established last March to clearly turn over the profits from copyrights.

Carlos Muñoz, lawyer of the Association of Writers of Spain (ACE), explains that the regulation concedes many rights to creators, "but it doesn’t set up any mechanisms to defend them." His association, which brings together some 2,000 authors, receives hundreds of complaints every year about the lack of transparency in the settlement of rights. Many could end up in court, but, as Muñoz states, "writers usually don’t have the money to take a publisher to court."

Read more here: El País - Cultura