SFWA Wank.
It was necessary to crush the pixel-stained
technopeasants* in order to save them.

Or:

The SFWA embarrasses itself. Again.


The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer's Association has a serious hate-on for e-books and a disturbing fascination for DRM. (And weirder anti-piracy measures, such as the Shades of Grey thang.)

They don't so much embrace technology as try to be the RIAA for the cover-painting-by-Michael-Whelan set.

Summary from the Nielsen-Haydens' blog : SFWA raided a site called Scribd (it's basically Flickr for text), and sent a cease-and-desist for a whole passel of files.

Among said files are reviews, a reading list for high school kids, a novel released under a Creative Commons license, and back issues of a magazine that'd been uploaded for promotional purposes.

The list of files marked for deletion.

Note the sig: Vader said, "Luke, I am your feather." Bothered by typos? Avoid pirated ebooks.

It's not just a job for Dr. Andrew Burt; it's a lifestyle. (But if I were him, I would've gone with DO NOT WANT!!! instead.)

ETA From puipui: Nick Mamatas mocks the second take-down email to Scribd.

In other news, I just got a tin deputy badge from a box of Crackerjacks and will be placing some parking tickets I just printed out on my home computer on the windshields of cars on my block. If anyone receiving the ticket asks, yes I am authorized to hand out these tickets and they are real tickets, the fines from which I will collect. If these real tickets get me into trouble, then they are not real tickets and anyone suckered by them is to blame for his own foolishness.

Ars Technica weighs in: Worse than Vogon poetry.

[...] it quickly became apparent that the USS 1701-SFWA had a crack in its dilithium crystals.

Cory Doctorow ain't happy, either.

Indeed, I have told Vice President Burt on multiple occasions that he may not represent me as a rightsholder in negotiations with Amazon, and other electronic publishing venues.

Hi kids; I got served a C&D over summer break.

Thanks to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, I now have a terrific “teachable moment” when I start school on Tuesday. When my students ask me what I did on my summer vacation I can tell them I was accused of violating copyright and learned all about the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the SFWA and counter-notifications.

From the magazine folks: We received a notification that one of our issues had been taken down because ‘because the copyright owner contacted us and asked us to.’ That statement was of great interest to us, because we hold the copyrights for these issues at the magazine.

Lawrence Watt-Evans is not pleased with Cory or SFWA. (Afaik... I'm assuming this is him, from a brief Googling.)

Andrew Burt is chairman of what used to be called the E-Piracy
Committee. I believe it's been renamed, but still has the same
function. At least in theory, they don't act except when asked to by
a member whose rights have been infringed, but if anyone in SFWA is
going to do anything in such cases, it's Burt's job.

And as someone else already pointed out, it was Howard Hendrix who
came up with the phrase "pixel-stained technopeasant," not Burt.

Cory Doctorow has been known to say things about SFWA's
anti-infringement activities that are demonstrably false, so while
there's probably a basis in fact here, I wouldn't put too much faith
in what he says.

I wouldn't believe Burt, either.

There are several reasons I quit SFWA. Cory Doctorow and Andrew Burt
are two of the minor ones.

The president of the SFWA (one Michael Capobianco, not the Andrew Burt dude) makes some statements here and officially, there.

Scribd's response to their response.

ETA Like maddened ferrets in a wet burlap sack

Speaking of Scalzi, the Whatever is back and he's putting in his two bits.

[...] believe me when I say a great number of us groaned and wondered why it is SFWA, which is often very positively helpful to writers, has to kick itself in its own balls as often as it does.

Distressing lack of wank in the post itself from the man who ran against the current SFWA prez, but it should get started once the blog's readers wake up.

ETA From limyaael: The SFWA ditches its e-piracy arm.

(* Correction: "Pixel-stained Technopeasant Wretches")