Comments on: SFWA Comes Under Fire Again for Its “Talks Like a Duck” New Committee http://dearauthor.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fdearauthor.com%2Fwordpress%2F2007%2F11%2F30%2Fsfwa-comes-under-fire-again-for-its-talks-like-a-duck-new-committee%2F&seed_title=SFWA+Comes+Under+Fire+Again+for+Its+%26%238220%3BTalks+Like+a+Duck%26%238221%3B+New+Committee Book reviews, industry news, and commentary from a reader's point of view Wed, 07 Jan 2009 23:36:58 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 By: Maya Reynolds http://dearauthor.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fdearauthor.com%2Fwordpress%2F2007%2F11%2F30%2Fsfwa-comes-under-fire-again-for-its-talks-like-a-duck-new-committee%2F&seed_title=SFWA+Comes+Under+Fire+Again+for+Its+%26%238220%3BTalks+Like+a+Duck%26%238221%3B+New+Committee/comment-page-1/#comment-104261 Maya Reynolds Sun, 02 Dec 2007 13:07:02 +0000 http://dearauthor.com/wordpress/2007/11/30/sfwa-comes-under-fire-again-for-its-talks-like-a-duck-new-committee/#comment-104261 Prior to his going off the rails on the subject of e-piracy, I had a lot of respect for Andrew Burt. He is the founder of Critters, the sci-fi critique group, and he was part of the gang who pulled off the "Atlanta Nights" hoax that exposed PublishAmerica as the bottom feeder vanity press it is. (see Wikipedia's entry on "Atlanta Nights" <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlanta_Nights" rel="nofollow">here</a> for a description of the hoax). However, on the subject of e-piracy, IMHO, Burt is not even rational. This is the second time (that I'm aware of) that he's headed up a group trying to stop what they perceive as e-piracy. I wrote about the first time in my blog of 9/5/07 <a href="http://www.mayareynoldswriter.blogspot.com/2007/09/look-back.html" rel="nofollow">here</a>. The thing that surprised me was Burt's contacting me after I blogged about him back on 11/11/05. So, Jane, don't be surprised if you hear from him after your post. Prior to his going off the rails on the subject of e-piracy, I had a lot of respect for Andrew Burt. He is the founder of Critters, the sci-fi critique group, and he was part of the gang who pulled off the “Atlanta Nights” hoax that exposed PublishAmerica as the bottom feeder vanity press it is. (see Wikipedia’s entry on “Atlanta Nights” here for a description of the hoax).

However, on the subject of e-piracy, IMHO, Burt is not even rational. This is the second time (that I’m aware of) that he’s headed up a group trying to stop what they perceive as e-piracy. I wrote about the first time in my blog of 9/5/07 here.

The thing that surprised me was Burt’s contacting me after I blogged about him back on 11/11/05.

So, Jane, don’t be surprised if you hear from him after your post.

]]> By: Kaz Augustin http://dearauthor.com/feeder/?FeederAction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fdearauthor.com%2Fwordpress%2F2007%2F11%2F30%2Fsfwa-comes-under-fire-again-for-its-talks-like-a-duck-new-committee%2F&seed_title=SFWA+Comes+Under+Fire+Again+for+Its+%26%238220%3BTalks+Like+a+Duck%26%238221%3B+New+Committee/comment-page-1/#comment-103716 Kaz Augustin Sat, 01 Dec 2007 00:34:42 +0000 http://dearauthor.com/wordpress/2007/11/30/sfwa-comes-under-fire-again-for-its-talks-like-a-duck-new-committee/#comment-103716 It's actually worse than that. If you read the Board's recommendations <a href="http://www.sfwa.org/news/2007/copyrightcommittee.htm" rel="nofollow">here</a> on SFWA's site, you'll see that it wasn't just the head but the entire committee that was reinstated: <blockquote>Moved, (1) that per the recommendations of the Exploratory Committee, the former Electronic Piracy Committee be revived in toto under the new name "Copyright Committee" <strong>with the same members and chair</strong> <em>(my emphasis)</em> as when it was disbanded;</blockquote> Can SFWA do <em>anything</em> right? It’s actually worse than that. If you read the Board’s recommendations here on SFWA’s site, you’ll see that it wasn’t just the head but the entire committee that was reinstated:

Moved, (1) that per the recommendations of the Exploratory Committee, the former Electronic Piracy Committee be revived in toto under the new name “Copyright Committee” with the same members and chair (my emphasis) as when it was disbanded;

Can SFWA do anything right?

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