Recent from talks
Authors Guild
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Authors Guild
The Authors Guild is the United States' oldest and largest professional organization for writers and provides advocacy on issues of free expression and copyright protection. Since its founding in 1912 as the Authors League of America, it has counted among its board members notable authors of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, including numerous winners of the Nobel and Pulitzer Prizes and National Book Awards. It has over 9,000 members, who receive free legal advice and guidance on contracts with publishers as well as insurance services and assistance with subsidiary licensing and royalties.
The group lobbies at the national and state levels on censorship and tax concerns, and it has initiated or supported several major lawsuits in defense of authors' copyrights. In one of those, a class-action suit claiming that Google acted illegally when it scanned millions of copyrighted books without permission, the Authors Guild lost on appeal in the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.[citation needed]
On multiple occasions, Authors Guild has fought the consolidation of the publishing industry through the mergers of large publishers, and it has pressed the publishers to increase royalty rates for ebooks.
The original Authors League of America was organized with headquarters in New York City in order "to protect the rights of all authors, whether engaged in literary, dramatic, artistic, or musical competition, and to advise and assist all such authors". In 1921, the Dramatists Guild of America split off as a separate group to represent writers of stage and, later, radio drama.[citation needed]
Past council presidents of the Authors Guild have included the novelists Pearl S. Buck, Rex Stout, Scott Turow, Douglas Preston and Madeleine L'Engle, the biographers Anne Edwards and Robert Caro, the journalists Herbert Mitgang and J. Anthony Lukas, the children's book author Mary Pope Osborne, and the historians William Shirer and Robert Massie. In 2014, the guild's members elected Roxana Robinson as president and Judy Blume as vice president. In 2023, the guild's members elected Maya Shanbhag Lang as president and Mary Bly as vice president.
The guild has been a persistent critic of controlled digital lending.
In June 2014, the guild announced final approval of an $18-million settlement of a class-action suit it brought in 2000, along with the American Society of Journalists and Authors, the National Writers Union and 21 freelance writers. The suit claimed that major electronics databases such as Lexis-Nexis had violated the rights of thousands of freelancers. Their work had originally appeared in newspapers and magazines including The New York Times and Time magazine and had then been resold to the databases without the writers' permission.
The publishers had argued that the databases constituted a fair "revision" of the original print articles, but the United States Supreme Court ruled in June 2001 that the writers must be compensated for their digital rights. Further litigation and negotiation led to a settlement that provided payments to the freelancers of up to $1,500 per article. The specific amount depended on whether (and, if so, when) an infringed article had been registered with the U.S. Copyright Office.
Hub AI
Authors Guild AI simulator
(@Authors Guild_simulator)
Authors Guild
The Authors Guild is the United States' oldest and largest professional organization for writers and provides advocacy on issues of free expression and copyright protection. Since its founding in 1912 as the Authors League of America, it has counted among its board members notable authors of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, including numerous winners of the Nobel and Pulitzer Prizes and National Book Awards. It has over 9,000 members, who receive free legal advice and guidance on contracts with publishers as well as insurance services and assistance with subsidiary licensing and royalties.
The group lobbies at the national and state levels on censorship and tax concerns, and it has initiated or supported several major lawsuits in defense of authors' copyrights. In one of those, a class-action suit claiming that Google acted illegally when it scanned millions of copyrighted books without permission, the Authors Guild lost on appeal in the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.[citation needed]
On multiple occasions, Authors Guild has fought the consolidation of the publishing industry through the mergers of large publishers, and it has pressed the publishers to increase royalty rates for ebooks.
The original Authors League of America was organized with headquarters in New York City in order "to protect the rights of all authors, whether engaged in literary, dramatic, artistic, or musical competition, and to advise and assist all such authors". In 1921, the Dramatists Guild of America split off as a separate group to represent writers of stage and, later, radio drama.[citation needed]
Past council presidents of the Authors Guild have included the novelists Pearl S. Buck, Rex Stout, Scott Turow, Douglas Preston and Madeleine L'Engle, the biographers Anne Edwards and Robert Caro, the journalists Herbert Mitgang and J. Anthony Lukas, the children's book author Mary Pope Osborne, and the historians William Shirer and Robert Massie. In 2014, the guild's members elected Roxana Robinson as president and Judy Blume as vice president. In 2023, the guild's members elected Maya Shanbhag Lang as president and Mary Bly as vice president.
The guild has been a persistent critic of controlled digital lending.
In June 2014, the guild announced final approval of an $18-million settlement of a class-action suit it brought in 2000, along with the American Society of Journalists and Authors, the National Writers Union and 21 freelance writers. The suit claimed that major electronics databases such as Lexis-Nexis had violated the rights of thousands of freelancers. Their work had originally appeared in newspapers and magazines including The New York Times and Time magazine and had then been resold to the databases without the writers' permission.
The publishers had argued that the databases constituted a fair "revision" of the original print articles, but the United States Supreme Court ruled in June 2001 that the writers must be compensated for their digital rights. Further litigation and negotiation led to a settlement that provided payments to the freelancers of up to $1,500 per article. The specific amount depended on whether (and, if so, when) an infringed article had been registered with the U.S. Copyright Office.