Ursula Le Guin Resigns From Authors Guild Over Google Book Settlement

Posted on December 28, 2009

Science fiction superstar Ursula LeGuin has resigned her membership in the Authors Guild, saying that the group had "made a deal with the devil" by supporting the Google Book Settlement. MsLeGuin has been a member of the Guild since 1972. In her letter she accuses the group of selling authors down the river. She also says that the Guild has ceded copyright to Google. She posted the statement on her website. Here's an excerpt of her resignation letter:

I am not going to rehearse any arguments pro and anti the "Google settlement." You decided to deal with the devil, as it were, and have presented your arguments for doing so. I wish I could accept them. I can't. There are principles involved, above all the whole concept of copyright; and these you have seen fit to abandon to a corporation, on their terms, without a struggle.

So, after being a loyal if invisible member for so long, I am resigning from the Guild. I am, however, retaining membership in the National Writers Union and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, both of which opposed the "Google settlement." They don't have your clout, but their judgment, I think, is sounder, and their courage greater.

The NWU and the SFWA both oppose the Google Book Settlement. Read the whole letter here.

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