"A girl was never ruined by books," my mother used to say. I've spent most of my life trying to prove that wrong.

Friday, June 13, 2014

The Digital World: Next Step for the Electronic Rights Defence Committee

Writers and readers of books should be aware of the swirling discussion about electronic publication and proper compensation for the people who write what we read. The latest is a suit by The Authors Guild, aiming to overthrow a court decision that upholds Google's e-book publishing program that digitizes "orphan" and other books. 

The same kind of problem exists in periodical publishing, and the Electronic Rights Defence Committee has been fighting since 1996 to get recompense for free lance writers whose work was stolen and published electronically by The Gazette, Montreal's English language daily.

The ERDC won the class action some time ago, but working toward distribution of the settlement has been slow going.  Now a hearing has been set on the distribtion plan, with a notice to members of the class being widely circulated.  Here's the link.  You'll also find the DRAFT claim form and other related documents.  Perhaps we'll finally get around to calling for claim submissions in the fall. 

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