Miles Howard
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milesperhoward.bsky.social
Miles Howard
@milesperhoward.bsky.social
Outdoor author and urban trail builder. Creator of Mind The Moss, a newsletter about walking. Bylines in National Geographic, Mountain Gazette, The Boston Globe, Outside, WBUR, The New Republic, and AFAR. I founded the Walking City Trail of Boston. He/Him.
Check out The Great Saunter next May! Already a strong precedent. More events like it would be great.
November 14, 2025 at 12:24 AM
What that looks like and what sort of conditions they might try to attach to compensation are TBD
November 13, 2025 at 9:09 PM
Yeah...my guess is that it was one of these things that seldom resulted in issues in the past; to the point when publishers got relatively lax about it. (Many of these lapses are technically breaches of contract.) Macmillan actually stepped up, owned it, and promised recompense for authors.
November 13, 2025 at 9:09 PM
The decision to use copyright registration as a qualifier caused a lot of blowback in the industry and I’m hoping that judges presiding over similar pending cases will take a different path, in deciding how to determine eligibility. But I don’t know how likely that is.
November 13, 2025 at 8:57 PM
Well, actually….the reason why it’s becoming a bigger deal now is because these massive piracy class action suits against AI companies are leading towards settlements in which copyright registration status is being used as the qualifier for claimants. So if your book wasn’t registered, you lose out!
November 13, 2025 at 8:55 PM
Footnote: For any authors who are just coming into this…

1. Check the copyright status of your books! (copyright portal link below)

2. Join @authorsguild.org if you haven‘t already. They can help.
publicrecords.copyright.gov
publicrecords.copyright.gov
November 13, 2025 at 8:38 PM
Thank you for writing this. It's excellent and powerfully argued. The Milosz tie-in was perfect.
October 1, 2025 at 2:14 AM