Some of those will be exclusive — the press release doesn’t make clear which ones, but an Amazon spokeswoman verified for me that Nick Jr. shows like Dora, Blue’s Clues and The Backyardigans will be exclusive to Prime, while Nickeloden shows like SpongeBob are exclusive “in terms of digital video subscription services”  but will still be available through sources like Viacom’s Nickelodeon app. In addition, Viacom says that recent episodes of some shows are still available on Hulu Plus. From the release:

“Prime members will now have unlimited instant streaming access to popular kids programming such as Bubble Guppies, The Backyardigans, Team Umizoomi, Blue’s Clues and Victorious, along with top-rated shows from MTV and Comedy Central like Awkward, Tosh.0 and Workaholics. Prime members will also have access to future episodes of Dora the Explorer, SpongeBob SquarePants, Fairly Odd Parents, Fresh Beat Band and more. LOVEFiLM customers in the UK and Germany will get some of the same great shows later this summer.”

Some shows from Nickelodeon and Nick Jr. will also be available through Kindle FreeTime Unlimited, Amazon’s monthly content subscription service for kids.

A source tells AllThingsD that this is “the company’s biggest licensing outlay to date,” but the company has been working hard to lock down exclusive streaming rights for awhile. This year, for instance, it got those rights to Downton Abbey: Starting June 18, Amazon will be the only place that viewers can stream the third season of the BBC hit, with seasons 1 and 2 going exclusive later in the year. It also has exclusives on FX’s Justified and the CBS Stephen King summer drama Under the Dome.

Prime Instant Video already offered some CBS and Showtime series for streaming. Amazon also announced a deal earlier this week to stream episodes of CBS’s upcoming Stephen King drama Under the Dome this summer while the show is still on the air.

In the release, CBS’s Scott Koondel mentioned Amazon’s connection to books as a reason that Prime Instant Video is getting the exclusive: “Amazon has the distinct combination of having a terrific video service with a huge fan base among their customers for Stephen King’s book, making them the perfect partner for this summer programming event.”

CBS has been reluctant to make new content available to outside services for streaming: The network has only given Hulu access to a few older shows, and most of those are only available to Hulu Plus subscribers. The network’s deal with Amazon on one show doesn’t necessarily mean that Prime Instant Video users should hold their breath for new episodes of CSI and The Mentalist, but it’s a possible step in that direction.

These so-called “termination rights,” which let authors break contracts after 35 years, have already made the media thanks to a court squabble between the Village People and music studios. On the book front, publishers  and agents are staying mostly mum even though the bestseller lists from 1978 reveal some very big names eligible to reclaim their work  – Stephen King, Judy Blume, John LeCarre and so on. Here’s a plain English overview of how the law works and why (for now at least) we’re likely to see literary types negotiate rather than litigate.

A Second Bite of the Apple

The law in question is Section 203 of the 1978 Copyright Act which allows authors to cut away any contract after 35 years. Congress put it in place to protect young artists who signed away future best sellers for a pittance.

“People have had 2013 circled on their calendar for a while,” said Andrew Bart, a copyright lawyer at Jenner & Block, in a phone interview.

Termination rights are not a new idea and have been the subject of famous court cases involving John Steinbeck, Lassie and Superman. The difference is that these older cases are based on a pre-1978 law that often required an author to exercise renewal rights which, in many cases, the author had signed away.

The new law has fewer such loopholes and will also mean that what has been a drip-drip of old copyright cases could turn into a flood as nearly every book published after 1978 becomes eligible for termination.

The 1978 law also means a threat to the back list of titles that are a cash cow for many publishers. The threat is amplified as a result of new digital distribution options for authors that were never conceived when the law was passed — these new options mean authors have more leverage to walk away from their publishers altogether.

Publishers contacted for this story were reluctant to discuss termination rights and several sources said they want to deflect attention from it. That may not be possible for much longer.

“Grist for the Litigation Mill”

Even by the standards of copyright law, the author reclamation rules are a messy cat’s cradle of ambiguous rules and technicalities. The math makes your head spin.

For instance, authors have a five-year window to exercise the right but must also provide advance notice at least two years but no more than 10 years beforehand. For 1978 authors — who are eligible to reclaim in 2013 — the window is already closing.

It’s unclear how many understand the rules. Several literary agents contacted for this story appeared to be unaware of how they worked or even of their existence. This is not true of copyright lawyers, some of whom are rubbing their hands at the prospect of a legal trainwreck.

“This will provide grist for the litigation mill,” said Bart, comparing the law to the 1999 safe harbor rules that tied courts in knots for a decade.

For musicians, the reversion rights issue has spilled into court already. Since last year, studios have been claiming that the lead singer of the Village People is ineligible to reclaim copyright. The studios argued the music is an ineligible  “work for hire” and that the whole band — as joint authors — must together trigger the termination. The arguments have failed so far as the first judge to hear them sided with the singer in May.

While the “right to hire” issue may not affect most book authors (who are typically not employees), it may affect some of the country’s most famous writers.

Copyright lawyer Lloyd Jassin says that some publishers may try to pull a legal ace from their sleeve by pointing to the personal corporations that prominent authors use to license their work. These corporations mean that — technically at least — the author may be ineligible since they are employees of the corporation not authors.

Another potential flashpoint for famous authors is what happens to film and merchandise rights if they reclaim copyright. While the law lets studios keep rights to films that are already made, it’s less clear who controls sequels and individual characters.

A Bomb or a Bargaining Chip?

The long awaited (and dreaded) new termination regime kicks in for real in just over a month. For now, though, it’s still too soon to say if the rules will denude backlists in a big way. A cursory search of the copyright registry suggests that termination notices have yet to flood in (copyrights are public records and a termination and transfer would have to be recorded).

This quiet may mean that many authors are simply unaware of their option to have a second bite at the apple. Or it may mean that quiet negotiations are taking place behind the scenes. While authors have the option to bolt their publisher, many may prefer to simply seek a sweeter deal rather than fly solo or risk triggering a lawsuit. And, as Law360 notes (sub req’d), there may be only a relative handful of works that are valuable enough to justify expending millions in legal fees.

Details about the rulers are still scarce but, for now, the Authors Guild and Jassin, the copyright lawyer, have very good plain English primers.

Finally, via Hawes.com, here is a list of the New York Times bestsellers from November 1978:

1 WAR AND REMEMBRANCE, by Herman Wouk

2 CHESAPEAKE, by James A. Michener

3 FOOLS DIE, by Mario Puzo.

4 THE FAR PAVILIONS

5 SECOND GENERATION, by Howard Fast.

6 PRELUDE TO TERROR, by Helen MacInnes

7 THE EMPTY COPPER SEA

8 EVERGREEN, by Belva Plain.

9 ILLUSIONS, by Richard Bach.

10 EYE OF THE NEEDLE, by Ken Follett.

11 BRIGHT FLOWS THE RIVER, by Taylor Caldwell.

12 THURSDAY THE RABBI WALKED OUT, by Harry Kemelman.

13 THE SILMARILLION, by J.R.R. Tolkien.

14 WIFEY, by Judy Blume. (Putnam’s, $8.95.)

15 SCRUPLES, by Judith Krantz.

NON-FICTION

1 IF LIFE IS A BOWL OF CHERRIES — WHAT AM I DOING IN THE PITS?
by Erma Bombeck.

2 A DISTANT MIRROR, by Barbara W. Tuchman.

3 IN SEARCH OF HISTORY, by Theodore H. White.

4 THE COMPLETE BOOK OF RUNNING, by James F. Fixx.

5 AMERICAN CAESAR, by William Manchester.

6 THE SNOW LEOPARD, by Peter Matiniessen.

7 THE WOMAN DOCTOR’S DIET FOR WOMEN, by Barbara Edelstein, M.D.

8 GNOMES, text by Wil Huygen, illustrated by Rien Poortvliet.

9 A TIME FOR TRUTH, by William E. Simon.

10 ROBERT KENNEDY AND HIS TIMES, by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.

11 PULLING YOUR OWN STRINGS, by Wayne W. Dyer.

12 THE COUNTRY DIARY OF AN EDWARDIAN LADY, by Edith Holden.

13 THE ONLY INVESTMENT GUIDE YOU’LL EVER NEED, by Andrew Tobias.

14 JACKIE OH! by Kitty Kelley.

15 PURE AND SIMPLE, by Marian Burros.

Simon & Schuster’s Scribner division is releasing Stephen King’s e-single, “Mile 81,” on social influence calculator site Klout (which recently partnered with Spotify) as a free download for a week before the e-single officially goes on sale for $2.99 on September 1. The e-single is bundled with the first chapter of King’s upcoming book 11/22/63, which will be released in November.

This is Klout’s first partnership with a publisher. “We expect to see more publishers looking to release their works to Klout influencers first,” the company’s marketing manager, Megan Berry, told me.

“Mile 81″ is being offered as a Klout Perk to “a select number of Klout influencers.” At the moment, it is not showing up on my own Klout Perks page. Either I’m not influential enough or not deemed right for this perk: As Klout explains in a blog post, “Our goal is to provide Perks to the people who are in the best position to speak intelligently about a product to an engaged and interested audience.”

According to Klout, I am an influencer in “publishing,” “Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) Kindle,” and “e-books.” However, the Klout Perks currently offered to me include discounts on rock climbing and free anti-hangover energy drinks. It seems as if the e-single would be a better fit, but apparently not. I may never find out why that old station wagon is killing people.

After the presentation, King hung around and granted paidContent a quick interview. Excerpts after the jump, and audio excerpts are here.

Following his introduction by Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) CEO Jeff Bezos, the perennially best-selling writer discussed how he was approached by the online retailer in mid-January to produce a story to be specially featured for the next generation launch of Amazon’s gossamer-thin e-Book device. Initially, he demurred, saying he had never written a story on demand. But when King, who had the original Kindle, realized “Hey, I could have gotten a new Kindle,” he called Amazon back and agreed. In the excerpt King read to the audience, a young Kindle reader debates his teacher about the virtues of the electronic reader. King didn’t reveal how his short story ended, but he did wind up with a new, one-of-its-kind pink Kindle. Prospective customers will only have the choice of the white/gray model for now, which will ship for $359 in the U.S. on Feb. 24 — no word yet on when sales will start in Europe. (King’s novella UR is pre-selling in the Kindle store for $2.99, 25 percent off the “digital list price.”)

– A good (electronic) read: King told me he’s pretty taken with the object, but he is still reading print and ink mostly. King: “I see it as a complement. I like reading on it just fine. I was surprised at its ease of use. It’s counter-intuitive, in the sense that you don’t want to read an instruction booklet. In fact, the one the kid has in the story doesn’t come with one. If you can turn on a button and turn a page — it’s really amazing to me. They’ve really done their best to make it easy.”

– Books are apples, songs are oranges: In other words, selling books online can’t be compared to selling music online. King, who published a story on the internet about eight years ago called Riding The Bullet, offered this take on the distinctions between buying books and music: “I just have to say that there is a fundamental difference between books and iPods and CDs and MP3 downloads. People, when they want music, they have a tendency to be selective. And they can be [when it comes to music]. You can take a song like Dire Straits‘ “Money For Nothing”, and pull it out of that album by downloading just that song. It’s 8-and-a-half minutes long and costs you 99 cents. Maybe you don’t want anything else on that album. I might want “Walk of Life” [another song on the band's Brothers In Arms album], but that’s just me. Or take The Police — there’s only two songs in their entire catalog that I might want, because I don’t really like them. But I can enjoy the parts that I do like. But when you talk about a book, you have to have the whole thing. So it seems to me that there’s a more level playing field. Yes, MP3s and iTunes destroyed the CD industry. Nobody’s going to buy the whole if you can just buy a slice. But that doesn’t apply to books.

– Kindle’s also a plot device: Making the Kindle integral to the plot device was King’s idea. Amazon did not require him to mention or tout the product for the story they commissioned, King said. “I don’t think I would have written just any story for the Kindle. It made it more interesting to me to make it more Kindle-specific. It actually gave me a chance to confront some of these questions of books versus electronics.”