NYPD shred kids' paper hearts commemorating Occupy arrestees before their very eyes

By Cory Doctorow at 12:33 pm Monday, Dec 12

Occupy protesters and their kids made 5,000 paper hearts, one for each of the arrests at the Occupy Wall Street protests. They made a mosaic of these at the gates of New York's City Hall, only to have the police literally rip down and shred them.

Parents for Occupy Wall St. March against police brutality. Children created 5,000 paper hearts one for every peaceful protestor arrested on behalf of the Occupy Wall Street movement in the three month period leading up to the march. The children delivered them to New York City Hall for Mayor Bloomberg only for the NYPD to aggressively tear them down and apart in front of the children. Children cried and the NYPD did yet another action against peaceful protestors. We as a country should not stand for this, get involved, speak up, do something for our children's futures.

It's predictable but weird how many of the YouTube commenters criticize the parents for involving their kids with a protest. I grew up on protest marches and demonstrations with my parents, and I take my daughter to them, because I think that parenting is (partly) about imparting values to your children. Growing up amid a critical discourse about issues of social justice and freedom helped make me who I was, and my parents were always available to debate these subjects with me, encouraging me to listen to arguments on either side without hiding which side they were on.

NYPD and NYC City Hall Break Kids Hearts (via Beth Pratt) Tags: authoritarianiam, happy mutants, Kids, occupy, ows, police, protest, video, youtube

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Writer: "my publisher said I could only get the rights to my out-of-print book back if I bought their leftover copies from them"

By Cory Doctorow at 4:51 am Sunday, Oct 16

Writer Doranna Durgin sez, "For eighteen months, publisher Fitzhenry & Whiteside has refused to honor the contract reversion clause for one of their fantasy titles; they have persistently demurred, ignored, and rebuffed attempts to discuss the situation, whether approached via agent, SFWA GriefCom, or directly. At this point, silence is their friend--but not in the interests of anyone else, including writers who are actively submitting YA works. The linked post presents a summary based on saved emails, the contract clause in question, and screenshot evidence."

Some context for non-writers out there: while creators in other fields (music, say) are typically required to assign their copyrights to their publishers/labels/studios, fiction writers have a much less oppressive arrangement with our publishers. We typically license our works to our publishers, and the publishers only get to keep those licensed rights for as long as the book is "in print." The definition of "in print" has evolved over the years, but typically it means, "the publisher has copies that it supplies to bookstores through its fulfillment system." The exact details of "in print" are spelled out in each book's contract.

According to her version of the story (a version corroborated by independent sources, like the Science Fiction Writers of America's Grievance Committee) Durgin's publisher is most certainly not keeping her book in print per the terms of their contract. The fact that they've demanded that Durgin buy back their leftover copies of book as a condition of holding up their end of the contract is without precedent -- indeed, it's a breathtaking violation of publishing norms, the sort of thing you're more likely to encounter from ripoff vanity publishers and not a respected house like Fitz and Witz. Writer Beware indeed.

After another nudge—which included the reminder that the publisher could continue to sell warehoused copies in their usual fashion, as well as a reminder of the boilerplate changes–we were finally told: “This book is in stock, on sale on our website, it continues to sell albeit in lesser quantities. [my note: yes, a handful of copies a year] We have some 1,600 in stock with no reason to revert rights.”

How about because it’s a contractual obligation?

...Early the next day, I heard from the GriefCom chair that he had received a phone call, and that the unidentified caller took him to task in no uncertain terms–claiming harassment, declaring there would be no reversion on the title, and warning that she would “report” us to [prominent Canadian SF writer #1] and [prominent Canadian SF writer #2]—all before hanging up on him.

Writer Beware: Fitzhenry & Whiteside [doranna.net] Tags: Business, canada, publishing, ripoff, science fiction, writing

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