FYI: Virtu

Apr. 28th, 2009 11:17 am
truepenny: artist's rendering of Sidneyia inexpectans (writing: virtu (Judy York))
[personal profile] truepenny
[ETA For those of you who would, in fact, like to own The Virtu in hardback, [livejournal.com profile] sleary is the Hero of the Revolution to whom you should apply.]


Right now, The Virtu is out of print in both hardback and paperback. My editor is trying to get it into the POD program Ace is starting up, and my agent is making a formal protest on my behalf to Ace Books. But unless and until Ace changes their mind (or the rights revert to me and I figure out what to do to make the book available), you're going to have to look for it used or remaindered.

Yes, this also means the Google Book Settlement is, hello, extremely concrete and personal right at the moment, and I have to say, for a company whose motto is, "Don't be evil," Google is and has been behaving like, well, serious evil on this subject. Essentially, as I understand it, what Google's position boils down to is, We aren't going to respect your copyright and you can't make us respect your copyright. If you want ANY say in what we do with your copyrighted material, you have to agree that it's ours to begin with. [That would be opting in to the settlement. And please notice that this involves agreeing to Google's false premise that they can ignore your copyright in the first place.] And if you don't agree [i.e., if you opt out], well, we're going to do it anyway unless you sue us. And if you sue us, we can squash you like a BUG, little author, because we're Google and you're not. Neener neener. Opting out of the settlement doesn't actually protect your copyrights from Google, it just means that you don't agree with the deal the Authors Guild worked out. Which I don't, because it looks pretty much like signing away your birthright for a mess of pottage.

So, yeah. Dear Google, what happened to "Don't be evil"?

[ETA: And opting in ALSO tacitly agrees to the false assumption that the Authors Guild has the right to represent me. As someone pointed out on a mailing list I'm on, Google is not the only entity behaving like an asshat here.]

file objection?

Date: 2009-04-29 03:43 pm (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
I may be coming into this late, but is it too late to file an objection to the settlement? Usually with class action settlements, there's a proposed settlement, notice is sent to class members (which you are unless and until you opt out), and class members have a period of time in which to file objections to the settlement (and/or to opt out - from what I've read, the current opt-out deadline is Sept. 4, but possibly the LA Times writer doesn't know the difference between opting out and objecting). Then there's a fairness hearing where the objectors have a chance to talk (preferably through attorneys). Only then, if the Court approves the settlement after hearing the objections, does the settlement go into effect (possibly with additional time to opt out).

It looks like the fairness hearing for final approval of the Google books settlement isn't until October, so you might still have time to file an objection. There's still a chance (especially with the justice dept breathing down google's neck re "orphan" book monopolies) that the settlement won't be approved.

Every objection counts - one of the things the Court looks at when it decides to approve a settlement is the percentage of class members who file an objection. So, even if 80% of authors complain about the settlement privately, if only 2% file objections, the evidence at the fairness hearing will show that 98% of authors approve of the settlement.

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