National Writers Union To Hold GBS 2.0 Meetings in NY and SF

The National Writers Union is organizing two public meetings, in New York and in the San Francisco Bay Area, to update local writers on the pros and cons of the revised settlement pending before the courts.

The first of these is in New York City (Wednesday, January 20, 2010, 2 p.m., at 256 W. 38th St., 12th floor) and is a collaborative effort of the NWU, the American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA), and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), three writers groups that oppose the settlement.

In addition to representatives of the three writers’ groups, the tentative speakers list includes New York Law School professor James Grimmelmann, and attorney, author and literary agent Lynn Chu, who served as co-counsel for the NWU, ASJA, and 58 individual authors who objected to the first settlement proposal. A representative of the Authors Guild has also been invited.

The Bay Area forum is in Berkeley, CA (Friday, January 22, 2010, 7 p.m., 2070 Allston Way). Along with Edward Hasbrouck, co-chair of the Book Division of the NWU, invited speakers including U.C. Berkeley law school professor Pamela Samuelson, the initiator of a joint letter to the court by academic authors who object to the settlement, and attorney Cindy Cohn, legal director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who represents authors who object to the proposed settlement on privacy grounds.

“All writers need to be fully aware of the settlement’s provisions in order to make informed decisions,” said NWU President Larry Goldbetter. “Writers have a second chance, regardless of whether you received official notice or what you did about the original settlement proposal. This is especially important with the new ‘opt-out’ date set for January 28.”