Ursula Le Guin to File Objection to Google Book Settlement
Bestselling fantasy author Ursula Le Guin will submit
an objection to the Google Book Settlement, along with 365 other writers. Ms. Le Guin is vehemently opposed to the settlement and has been an outspoken critic of the agreement which she says takes away authors' rights.
Le Guin's petition asks Judge Denny Chin to exempt the United States from the revised legal settlement reached between Google and US authors and publishers over the Internet giant's vast digital book-scanning project.
Chin is scheduled to hold a hearing on the revised agreement on February 18.
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In her petition, which is available on her website, ursulakleguin.com, Le Guin said the 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," she said. "Its settlement cannot be seen as reflecting the will or interest of any group but the Guild."
She said the National Writers Union, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America were among those opposed to the settlement.
"We ask that the United States also be exempted from the settlement," she said. "We ask that the principle of copyright, which is directly threatened by the settlement, be honored and upheld in the United States."
"We urge our government and our courts to allow no corporation to circumvent copyright law or dictate the terms of that control," Le Guin said.
Several countries have already opted out of the settlement. Allowing the U.S. to be exempted from the settlement will scuttle the settlement once and for all.
