Petition Letter to the Judge of the Google Book Settlement.
and List of Authors Opposing the Settlement
The following petition was submitted to Judge Chin
on January 26th, 2010, with the names of the 367
authors who signed it with me.
I am proud to be in their company.
The petition and the list of names will remain
posted until the court hearing in February.
Names that came in just past the deadline are
listed separately, as supporters of our effort.
It’s no longer possible to sign the petition.
But you are welcome to join the discussion of
the Google Settlement and related issues at the
Book View Cafe blog.
— UKL
Petition Concerning the Google Book Settlement
The Google Settlement was negotiated by the Authors Guild,
without consultation with any other group of authors or American authors as a
whole. The Guild cannot and does not speak for all American writers. Its
settlement cannot be seen as reflecting the will or interest of any group but
the Guild.
Three groups of American writers, the National Writers
Union, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, and the Science Fiction
and Fantasy Writers of America, are opposed to the settlement. So are all the
signatories of this letter: professional writers, who make part or all their
living from their copyrights.
Ireland, India, South Africa, and New Zealand (countries
with active publication in English) protested the settlement and have been
exempted from it. The governments of Germany and France protested unregulated
digitization and have been exempted from the Settlement (and the French
Government is suing Google for illegal digitization of copyrighted property.)
We ask that the United States also be exempted from the
settlement. We ask that the principle of copyright, which is directly
threatened by the settlement, be honored and upheld in the United States.
The “opt-out” clause in the Settlement is most disturbing:
First, it seems unfair that, by the terms of the
class-action settlement, authors can officially present objections to the Court
only by being “opted in” to the settlement and thereby subjecting themselves to
its terms.
Second, while the “opt-out” clause appears to offer authors
an easy way to defend their copyright, in fact it disguises an assault on
authors’ rights. Google, like any other publisher or entity, should be required
to obtain permission from the owner to purchase or use copyrighted material,
item by item.
There is no justification for reversing that rule by forcing
copyright owners to defend their right against every careless or predatory use
of the material, thus rendering copyright essentially meaningless.
The United States Department of Justice agrees, having
declared that Google should negotiate individually with copyright holders. The
Director of the United States Copyright Office calls the Settlement “an end-run
around copyright law.”
The free and open dissemination of information and of
literature, as it exists in our Public Libraries, can and should exist in the
electronic media. All authors hope for that. But we cannot have free and open
dissemination of information and literature unless the use of written material
continues to be controlled by those who write it or own legitimate right in it.
We urge our government and our courts to allow no corporation to circumvent
copyright law or dictate the terms of that control.
— Ursula K. Le Guin
Author List
Millicent Borges Accardi
Danny Adams
Max Adams
Nona Aguilar
Brigit Aine
Sara Amis
Karla Andersdatter
Douglas A. Anderson
Donna Andrews
Judith Arcana
William H. Ash III
Lori K. Baker
Susan Pease Banitt
Douglas Barbour (CANADA)
Darryl Barnes
David M. Bartell
Anita Bartholomew
Ray Bartlett
Michel Basilieres (Canada)
Elizabeth Bear
Marc Beaudin
Georgia Beaverson
William Bedford
Angela Benedetti
Carol Berg
Gail J. Berg
Mary Rose Betten
David Biespiel
Madeline Bodin
Moe Bowstern (aka Lara Mulvaney)
Irene Brady
R V Branham
Greg Breining
Marie Brennan
Patricia Briggs
Steven Brown (Stan!)
N M Browne (UK)
Jonathan Buckley
Beverly Burmeier
Ken Burnside
Julie Ann Burton/Jenn Saint-John
M.L. Bushman
Charles Butler
Mary Lynn Cabrall
Ken Cadow
Sheila Callahan
Mike Cane
Michael Capobianco
Amy Sterling Casil
Richard Cass
Victor M. Cassidy
Christine Cole Catley
Karen Christino
Margaret Chula
Chris Clarke
Amanda Cockrell
Brian E. Cooper
E.W. (Ellen) Count
Brad Crawford
J.D. Crayne
Barbara Crooker
Eliza Cross
Raul daSilva
Meryl Davids
Steve Davidson
Robert A. Davies
Kathryn Lynn Davis
Milly Dawson
Francesca De Grandis
Guy Anthony De Marco
Pamela Dean
Stephen Delaney
Alyx Dellamonica
Barbara Demarco-Barrett
Jackie Dishner
Roger Dorband
John Dougherty (U.K.)
Ramsay Dow
Matt Doyle
Noreen Doyle
Laree Draper
Dave Draper
Lisa Duchene
Joe Dully
Hal Duncan
Ann Dupuis
E.T. (Cy) Eberhart
John Edge
Rosemary Edghill
Sabine Eiche
Carol Ekarius
Michael Elcock
Thomas Evans
D.R. Evans
Julie Fanselow
Fawn Fitter
Judith Fitzgerald
Sean P. Fodera
Tim Folger
James Talbot Frain
Scott Fratcher
Barb Freda
I.G. Frederick
Judith Freeman
Rebecca French
Paula Friedman
Mark L. Fuerst
Cathie Gandel
Lynne Garner (U.K.)
Melissa Gaskill
Phillis Gershator
Jason E. Gillikin
Laura Anne Gilman
Rachel Gladstone-Gelman
Molly Gloss
Joe Gold
Kim Goldberg
Stephanie Golden
Toni Goldfarb
Lisa Goldstein
Mickey Goodman
Michelle Goodman
Felicity Goodyear-Smith (NZ)
Jodie Gould
Steven Gould
Timothy Gower
Rosalie V. Grafe
Shawn Granger
Beverly Gray
Frances Grimble
Mavis Guinard
Eileen Gunn
Marilyn Hacker
Andrea Hairston
Nancy W. Hall
Kate Hanley
Nick Harkaway (UK)
Lisa Harkrader
Deborah Harmes
Edward Hasbrouck
Justin Adams Haven
John Hedtke
John G. Hemry/Jack Campbell
John Henley
Saxon Henry
Roland Hess
James A. Hetley
Jack Hillman
Bill Hinchberger
Jim C. Hines
Peter Hobbs
Harriet Hodgson
Rachel Holmes (U.K.)
Lynley Hood (N.Z.)
Kay Hooper
Elizabeth Meade Howard
Keri Hulme (N.Z)
Deborah R. Huso
Blake Hutchins
Shane Ivey
Angie Jabine
Betsy James
Roby James
Victoria Janssen
Jan Jasper
Liesl Jobson (SOUTH AFRICA)
Judith Johnson
Larissa Brittany Johnson
Gwyneth Jones
Miracle Jones
Spike Y Jones
Mary Kaiser
Stacia Kane
Judith Karpova
Christine Kuehn Kelly
Steve Kenson
Claire J. Keyes
Katharine Eliska Kimbriel
Brittany Kingston
James Kite
Ellen Klages
Martin Klimes
Andrew Kozma
Bill Kropla
Ondine Brooks Kuraoka
Louise Lacey
Mercedes Lackey
Marc Laidlaw
Sarah Lamstein
Ruth Laney
Cassandra Langer
Katherine Langrish
Rodger Larson
Jack Lasenby (N.Z.)
Janine Latus
Christina R. Lay
Jack Baldwin LeClair
Stephen Leigh
Lisbeth Levine
John R Levine
Isaac Levy
Peter R. Limburg
Jonathan Lipkin
Norman M. Lobsenz
Elise Logan
James Lowder
Sallie Lowenstein
Michael W Lucas
Rosalie Maggio
Daryl F Mallett
Roger Marshall
Lee Martindale
Joan Mazza
Gwendolyn R. McAlister
Michael McCallister
Bonnie McGinnis
Vonda N. McIntyre
Mary Mihaly
Sandra Miller-Louden
Randi Minetor
Fred Minnick
Devon Monk
Elizabeth Moon
John Moore
Robin Morgan
Stephen Morrill
Evan Morris
Nancy Mulvany
Moira Munro (U.K)
Kim Murphy
Randy Myers
Katherine Nabity
Joanna Nadin
Elizabeth Sussman Nassau
Judy Nedry
Erik Ness
Richard Jeffrey Newman
Claire Nolan
Fredrick Rea O'Keefe
Jerry Oltion
Luis Ortiz
Naomi Otsubo
James A. Owen
Lisa L. Owens
Helen Oyeyemi
Maggie M. Paquet (CANADA)
Richard Parks
Wendy Patterson
Claudia Pearson
Susan K. Perry
Lawrence Person
Catherine M. Petrini
Evelyn Jean Pine
Lavinia Pisano
Kate Pocock
Paul Preuss
Joan Price
John Pritchard (U.K.)
Tom Purdom
Alexis Quinlan
Phyllis Radford
Cornelia Read
Melissa Readon
Bonnie Remsberg
Laura Resnick
Karen Packard Rhodes
Dick Richards
Linda Riebel
Mimi Riser
Madeleine E. Robins
Kim Stanley Robinson
Deborah Robson
Peter Rock
John Rosengren
Betsy Rosenthal
Adrienne Ross
Carolee Ross
Manuel Royal
John Royce
Beth Rubin
Helen Ruggieri
Sue Russell
Jesse Jayne Rutherford
Vicki Salemi
Deb Salisbury
Anne Sanders (Australia)
Patricia Sargeant
Willa Schneberg
Lani Schonberg
Candace Schuler
Daylle Deanna Schwartz
Kamila Shamsie
Marie Shear
Anna Sheehan
Tamara Sheehan
Jean Sheldon
Walt Shiel
Denise Siino
Andrew G. Simpson
Ruth Singer
Vandana Singh
Shelley Slouza
Sonya Smith
Karen Smith (CANADA)
Cheryl Solimini
Lisa Spangenberg
Bud Sparhawk
Philip Spiegel
Gillian Spraggs (United Kingdom)
Charles C. Spray
Michael A. Stackpole
Allen Steele
Jonathan Steinberg
John Stickler
Brooke C. Stoddard
Michael Swanwick
Claire Sykes
Judith Tarr
James Taylor
Charlene Teglia
Philip Temple (N.Z.)
Malinda Terry
Allan Terry
Bridget Mintz Testa
Sheree Renee Thomas
Amy Thomson
Jeff Tidball
Rachel Tillman
Pamela Toler
Debra Traverso
Liza Groen Trombi
Jerome Tuccille
Barbara J. Turner
Donna Van Cleve
Raymond Van Over
Elisabeth Vonarburg (Canada)
Dian Vujovich
Ken Wachsberger
John Walker (Australia)
James Waller
Jo Walton
Andrea Warren
John F. Wasik
Bud Webster
Katharine Webster
Marvin Weisbord
Henry Wessels
Brook West
Martha Ullman West
Victoria Wheeler
Charles Whipple
Russell Wild
Lorraine Wilde
Elizabeth Wiley
Bill Williams
Bob Wilson
Brandon Wilson
Marsha Winborn
Michele Wojciechowski
Jenny Woolf (U.K.)
Jennifer Worick
Sharon Wood Wortman
Helen S. Wright (UK)
Jan Wright
Rustin H. Wright
Jane Yolen
Martin Zucker
