Author Advocates Legal Defense Fund

Those of you who aren't writers probably haven't heard of this, and a lot of you who are writers probably haven't heard about it either, so here I go posting about it.

There is one Barbara Bauer, a practicing literary agent, who has filed suit against Wikimedia and a number of individuals, including the hosts of my beloved writer's forum hangout on AbsoluteWrite. Here are the cliff notes:

Babs claims her reputation is being ruined and she is losing business due to those in the online community who have spoken out against her practices. (More details on that are sprinkled via hyperlink throughout this post.) She has been listed on things like the Top Twenty Worse Agents list on the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer's of America site, as well as spawning a specific thread in the Background and Bewares section of AbsoluteWrite with nearly 200 responses. There are even some humorous takes on the situation, such as a mock up of the potential court proceedings involving Miss Snark. Long story short, this case is rippling throughout the writing community.

Basically, it is really expensive to defend against a claim like this, and as such there has been an Author Advocate Defense Fund set up to help the 19 or so people involved pay for their legal fees. After about -- what is it, nine months and running? -- those fees get pretty hefty.

Please donate, and if you can't donate, spread the word!


Some other links of interest:

The Writer Beware blog
The Writer Beware site (a must read for any author!)
AbsoluteWrite's entire sub forum of Bewares and Background Checks


Bloggers that have posted about the Author Advocate Legal Defense Fund:
Lee
Dawno
Rosemerry
Auria (plus a follow up on the case)
Sara
Neil Gaiman
newroticgirl
Jane Smith
James Nicoll
John Scalzi
Jenifer
Charles Stross


~Sass~