Author Malcolm Gladwell will deliver the closing address at the Association of American Publishers’ Annual Meeting on March 14 in New York City. Gladwell will discuss “Publishing in the 21^st Century.”

Follow this link to register.  Hachette Book Group chairman David Young will introduce the author and U.S. Copyright Office register of copyrights Maria Pallante will keynote the event.

AAP president Tom Allen explained the choice: “The focus of our gathering will be on critical current issues such as distribution channels and copyright protection, considered through the prism of publishers and our historic partners.  Malcolm Gladwell’s remarkable skill in interpreting new ideas and inspiring thoughtful debate, particularly with a community in which he’s a member, will be a wonderful closure to the day.”

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At a status conference in front of federal judge Denny Chin, publishers reported “good progress” in striking a new settlement with Google over the future of 15 million scanned books. Nevertheless, a trial looms on the horizon.

New York Law School law professor James Grimmelmann posted a detailed report from the hearing from his students. They noted this pretrial schedule: “The plaintiffs will move for class certification by December 11, 2011. Google will respond by January 26, 2012, and the plaintiffs will reply by March 12.”

The Association of American Publishers (AAP) president Tom Allen had this statement: “Today, we informed the court that the Association of American Publishers, the five publisher plaintiffs and Google have made good progress toward a settlement that would resolve the pending litigation regarding the Google Library Project.  We are working to resolve the differences that remain between the parties and reach terms that are mutually agreeable.” (Via Jen Howard)

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