The case for authors' rights: a view from within

• Author: Catherine Jewell
• Position: Communications Division, WIPO
• Pages: 14-15

p. 14 2014 | 2

The notable contemporar y British poet, playwright a nd novelist, Maureen Duff y,

shares her views on the cha llenges facing authors today and w hy it is important to

defend their rights.

“To write is to write is to write is to write is to write…,” said Ms. Duff y quoting Gertrude

Stein. “We write for the love of it, but we also need to be paid … we can’t just ru n

on our love alone.”

The biggest challe nges facing writers today are “getting published and getti ng paid,”

Ms. Duffy sai d. Whereas in the past, the existence of many mid-sized p ublishers

meant writers had greater cho ice and opportunity to get their works pu blished, today,

with the sector’s consolidation, a handful of intern ational conglomerates domin ate.

“Publishers don’t give advances in the s ame way that they used to. Now, they say, you

write the book and we will see if we want to buy i t,” the author noted. Many smaller

publishing houses have gon e out of business and the few that have sur vived rarely

have the clout to effectively mar ket and distribute their works.

Within the evolving publish ing landscape the Internet of fers a potentially fruitfu l alter-

native means of reaching a broade r audience, but is not without its ris ks. “Although

the Internet provides opportunities for people to get their work out there, it doesn’t

yet provide proper oppor tunities for them to be paid for it. This is an en ormous chal-

lenge,” Ms. Duffy said. “Although digital tec hnology can confer great benets in eas e

of production and communic ation, that same ease makes it easy to pirate, to copy

without payment, to distort and to deny auth ors any return from their investment of

time, skill and economic su pport, or even any acknowledgement of their author ship

which is a universal hum an right,” she added.

Expectations of free ac cess to digital content are particularly disqu ieting for authors.

“Why should the author be the on ly one to give for free,” Ms. Duffy queried, underlinin g

the need, “to protect the creators so they get a via ble share so they can go on doing

what they do best which is creati ng.”

“There is a tremendous pl ace for authors’ works online,” noted Ms. Duffy. “We’ve been

through everythin g from papyrus to paper and now we’ve got the Internet which is

just a medium. It’s global and that’s ne, because we all want to reach the b iggest

possible audience, but th ere is a danger of damage to the qualit y of what is being

offered and to the sufc ient return to keep creators creating,” she said.

While the rights of authors have bee n recognized in law since the adoption of the

world’s rst copyright statute, the Statute of Anne of 1710 (see box) the need to defend

these rights is taking on re newed importance in today’s globalized and digitized world.

THE CASE FOR

AUTHORS’ RIGHTS:

a view from within By Catherine Jewell,

Communications Division,

WIPO