Here’s a quick quiz for you – who said this?  “When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less.” If you guessed Humpty Dumpty, give yourself a point – if you said “Random House”, get a bonus point!

The fact is that Random House has taken a Humpty Dumpty-like approach to defining what a “book” is; in a letter just sent to agents, they are claiming that a “book” means pretty much whatever they want it to mean.  So, by claiming that a “book” really means an “e-book”, they are arguing that contracts signed decades before the e-book was invented give them e-book rights, as well. Humpty would be proud of their logic.

Also on today’s Write Report with Donna Ballman we’re reporting on moves to finally reform England’s disgraceful libel laws, and the CIA’s venture-capital division (yes, another surreal concept, but it’s true) invests in technology that can track everything you do on Twitter, blogs, online forums, and YouTube – and gets sued by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

That’s the final Write Report of the year – Donna Ballman will be back next year in an exciting new format, and do join us tonight… for carol-singing on Litopia After Dark!  Talk about surreal…

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