NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] Re: "Wired" on Google Books Settlement Status
On 24 Mar 2011 at 17:08, "Lauren Weinstein" <Lauren Weinstein
<lauren@vortex.com>> wrote:
> "There are many, many people, class members in the thousands, for
> whom this is a very sad day."
> -- Authors Guild lead counsel Michael J. Boni
It's a sad day for Michael Boni because he's the "real party in interest"
in the (rejected as unfair) settlement proposal, and the person with the
most at stake. Had the proposed settlement been approved, Boni and his co-
counsel would have received $35M, as much as all the authors and print
publishers put together, and enough for him to live on comfortably for the
rest of his life even after dividing it with co-counsel. As long as he
could bring about a settlement, any settlement, he'd get rich. He gets the
same amount regardless of how the author-publisher share is divided, or
whether the deal sells out authors to print publishers by overriding
exisitng author-publisher contracts and transferring a vast share of
authors' rights and revenue entitlement to print publishers.
For more on how the proposed settlement would have affected author-print
publisher relations (independent of anything to do with Google), see the
National Writers Union material on the case at www.nwubook.org.
Peace,
Edward Hasbrouck
[ It seems to me that Boni's fee relates to endemic features
of the U.S. legal system, and is essentially orthogonal
to the actual issues. And of course, he acts at the
direction of his clients, who we can assume have
agreed to his fee structure. So trying to demonize
him looks rather silly.
-- Lauren Weinstein
NNSquad Moderator ]
----------------
Edward Hasbrouck
Co-Chair, Book Division
National Writers Union (UAW Local 1981, AFL-CIO)
http://www.nwubook.org
<edward@hasbrouck.org>
+1-415-824-0214 (San Francisco)
Book Division Co-Chair: Susan E. Davis
SEDNYC@earthlink.net
NWU National Office:
+1-212-254-0279 (New York)