Authors Alliance Cast as Misguided Academics by Authors Guild and Others, as Alliance Prepares Launch

The alliance’s official launch and unveiling of “principles and proposals for copyright reform” is set for Wednesday at the Internet Archive, a digital library, in San Francisco, said Samuelson. Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle is an Authors Alliance advisory board member. The alliance agrees with Register of Copyrights Maria Pallante that the Copyright Act of 1976 is “too long and too complicated,” Samuelson said. The act “needs to be more comprehensible,” she said. The alliance is currently talking with foundations about funding and sponsorships, but has already garnered resources from board and advisory board members, she said. The alliance hasn’t and won’t seek funding from Google, she said.

Judge Denny Chin of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Google’s public indexing of copyrighted books on fair use grounds in Authors Guild v. Google last year (WID Nov 15 p1). He continued to oversee the U.S. District Court in New York case following his appointment to the 2nd Circuit, where his ruling is currently on appeal (WID April 15 p1).

The alliance is “concerned about digital oblivion” or the inaccessibility of books that are in libraries and haven’t been digitized and their availability under fair use, said Samuelson. If works aren’t digitized and can’t be made “available in digital form, people won’t know that they exist,” she said. “Fair use is a really important part” of the “ongoing progress of knowledge,” she said. Google Books “serves the interests of authors who want people to know that their works exist,” she said. The guild has “kind of gone in the wrong direction by challenging” Google’s fair use rights, she said.

"If any of you earn a living as a writer, or hope to, I strongly urge you not to join” the alliance, said the guild’s Stiles in Friday’s letter. To anyone who’s an “academic, or scorn[s] the idea of making a living from writing as a quest for ‘fame and fortune,’ the Authors Alliance may be the organization for you,” he said. Samuelson and alliance board member Molly Van Houweling “have made many proposals to reduce copyright protections for authors and restrict remedies for infringement,” Stiles said, calling the alliance an “astroturf organization.” It might be “too early to identify” the alliance’s official principles, but its members have promoted ideas like: “allowing people to resell digital files the way they can resell used physical books”; “allowing libraries to digitally copy your books, even if you have an e-book edition for sale”; “allowing private for-profit corporations to copy your books in their entirety and selling advertising against searches of them”; “allowing potentially unlimited copying for educational uses”; and “requiring proper attribution of others’ works,” he said. The last point is “reasonable-sounding,” but should sound “all kinds of alarms,” he said. “Who will judge our books? What will be the penalties?” he asked. The alliance’s academics “don’t care about the commercial market for books or writing,” he said. “I would argue they're actively hostile to it.”

Stiles’ letter is “inaccurate” and a “big disappointment,” said Samuelson. The guild is “trying to strangle us before” the alliance launches, she said. The guild wants to “act like they're the only people” who represent authors, but “authors are more diverse than they want to admit,” she said. It’s “not surprising” the guild wouldn’t be “excited” about the alliance, she said. The alliance has “made a real effort to reach out to the guild” and hopes they can “work together on some issues,” she said. “The fact that we disagree” is “to be expected,” she said. Samuelson said the alliance and the guild could find agreement on attribution issues for authors.

The alliance is a “small group of academic writers who don’t earn their living as writers,” said Larry Goldbetter, National Writers Union president. “If they have their way, neither will a lot of writers who do write for a living,” he said. “They are seeking small donations from writers’ organizations to give themselves some credibility as working writers,” he said. “While many members on the alliance’s advisory board are academics,” the group will also promote the “interest of authors, generally,” said Samuelson. The alliance hopes to “demystify” copyright issues that “authors across the board” find concerning, she said.

The “biggest challenge” for working authors is trying to avoid giving away “their works for free in the digital world,” said Sandra Aistars, CEO of the Copyright Alliance, which has a “grass-roots network” that supports authors writing to “sustain themselves.” Authors who want to be read “think the best way to ensure” their success is to produce “fantastic” work, “not necessarily give it away for free,” she said. The Authors Alliance is “largely drawn from the academic community,” which often operates on a “different career and incentives model” than working authors, she said. Academics primarily write for “prestige and career advantage,” with the benefit of salaries and benefits, she said. The guild and Authors Alliance are “likely” to disagree on their approaches to copyright issues, she said, adding that the Copyright Alliance is “probably more aligned” with the guild.

The Authors Guild has been “very active” in copyright debates, but represents “one segment of authors,” said Jonathan Band, Library Copyright Alliance counsel and one of many founding members of the Authors Alliance. There are “many different kinds of authors who have very different interests,” he said. The alliance might also get involved in the revamp of statutory damages rules, so there are “fewer disincentives to using materials,” he said. It’s not out of the question that the alliance and the guild could find common ground on other copyright issues, he added.