An Open Letter
To Jeff Bezos, CEO Amazon.com, to Eric Schmidt, CEO Google.com, and to
others who may develop similar technology
We the undersigned, sharing a desire to sell more books and provide
security against piracy and reading enough of a book online that a
purchase is no longer necessary, thus request that:
1) Authors and publishers have control over which page images are
viewable, by being able to submit a list of page numbers for a book;
2) You take the necessary steps to ensure that text search results
cannot be used to assemble pirate copies (such as removing paragraph
indicators); and
3) Upon copyright owner request you supply
copies of your scanned images and text for use
in anti-piracy efforts (such as for use in the Shades
of Gray anti-piracy program or for determining the origin
of pirate works to assist in prosecution of pirates, etc.).
This will allow, for example, disabling the viewing of the last 1/3 of
pages of a short story, textbook chapter, or allow selective blocking of
critical parts of reference works, thereby allowing consumers to browse
online in a more bookstore-like manner while simultaneously encouraging
them to purchase the books. We believe this will increase the number
of books participating in your full text search and page image display
system, and will in particular give publishers and authors confidence
in including their works, particularly those at greater risk, such as
textbooks, short fiction anthologies, and reference works. This will
increase sales and decrease theft, which is in all our best interests.
Sincerely,
Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc.
Romance Writers of America
American Society of Journalists and Authors
Horror Writers Association
Mystery Writers of America
Novelists, Inc.
Society of Academic Authors
Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators
Textbook & Academic Authors Association
Western Writers of America
Bookshare.org
Richard Curtis as agent and as publisher of e-Reads Publishing
Marty Greenberg, editor/publisher of hundreds of anthologies
Ralph Vicinanza, agent for many well known authors, including Stephen King
Additionally, the Authors Guild has written and endorsed a letter with the
same points.
