Washington, DC, May 8, 2018 — Representatives of the NWU, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), the American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA), and the Authors Guild (AG) converged on Washington this week to call on the US Copyright Office to create a “group registration” procedure by which a writer could […]
Application for ECL License in the UK withdrawn
The UK Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) has withdrawn its application to the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) for a license to operate an Extended Collective Licensing (ECL) scheme that would have included all written works by US writers. The NWU had opposed this application as likely to interfere with the revenues of US writers from […]
Checks Are in the Mail for May Day!
As of today, International Workers’ Day, checks for approximately $9.5 million are in the mail to almost 2,500 freelance writers whose works were copied and distributed in electronic form by publishers of print periodicals who had neither paid for nor acquired digital rights to these articles. These payments today of millions of dollars to thousands […]
NWU to Partner with VLA NY
NWU is partnering with Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts NY. This is a new member benefit that our members will have access to in navigating the difficult world of building a freelance writing career. NWU became a non-profit institutional member of VLA and the first fruit of this new relationship is that VLA will represent […]
NWU Opposes UK Scheme for “Extended Collective Licensing” for Digital Rights
Feb. 5, 2018 — This week the NWU responded to a public consultation by the U.K. Intellectual Property Office (IPO) — the British counterpart of the U.S. Copyright Office — to oppose an application by the U.K. Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) for authorization to operate an extended collective licensing (ECL) on behalf of all writers […]
New Addendum To Book Contracts Guide
Over the past few years, we’ve had increasing numbers of inquiries about the treatment of electronic books (e-books) within book contracts. While they were traditionally considered subsidiary rights that compensated authors at 50 percent of net sales, many publishers have begun to see them as a windfall, and have tried to get members to accept […]
RIP Sister Ursula K. Le Guin
It is with great sorrow and the deepest respect that we bid farewell to Sister Ursula K. Le Guin, a ground-breaking author, radical, feminist and revolutionary as well as a literary giant. What’s more, she was one of us, a member of NWU. She was the author of more than 20 novels, a dozen books […]
French Law Favoring Publishers Repealed
The French government earlier this year repealed a terrible law giving the country’s publishers the “right” to issue or license new editions of “out of print” books and pocket the revenues. The law, which was overturned last June, allowed print publishers to profit from these newly issued digital editions, regardless of the availability of previous versions of […]
NWU Endorses U.S. Copyright Reform Bills
The NWU has endorsed two bipartisan proposals introduced in the current Congress for reform of U.S. copyright law. Neither of these proposed laws would adequately address the fundamental problems for writers with current copyright law, but each of them would be a step in the right direction. One of these bills, H.R. 3495, would create […]
U.S. Copyright Office Ends Push for ECL for Mass Digitization
In a victory for the National Writers Union and allied writers, the U.S. Copyright Office has closed out its two-year-old study of “Extended Collective Licensing” (ECL) as a legal framework for mass digitization by deciding not to recommend that Congress enact any such law.
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