Defend the Defenders

Dawn O'Bryan-Lamb has established the Author Advocate Defense Fund  to help the bloggers, web sites, and organizations being sued by literary agent Barbara Bauer:

"On September 20, 2007, Barbara Bauer filed suit in New Jersey against a list of defendants, ranging from the Wikipedia Foundation, to message board owners, to bloggers.

More information about the precipitating events can be found in the archives of Making Light. There is additional information about the case regarding Wikipedia at the Electronic Frontier Foundation site. 

 Another defendant is Science Fiction Writers of America for its Writer Beware "thumbs down agencies" or "Twenty Worst" list. Yet another is the former and current owner of  Absolute Write which has a thread about the Plaintiff on their site. 

Defending oneself against a lawsuit is expensive, and many of the author advocates being sued could use help to pay the many legal costs involved, which are adding up over these past 9 months.

I've set up a PayPal site where you can donate to help these writers with their legal fees. Any amount is welcome. Any fees assessed by PayPal will be covered, so your full donation goes to the legal defense fund. All funds will be disbursed directly to the defendant's attorneys in equal shares."

It's a good cause. I urge you to make a donation.

UPDATE 7-4-08 : Score one for the good guys. Bauer's lawsuit against Wikipedia has been thrown out by the court. The Ashbury Park Press reports:

Judge Jamie S. Perri dismissed complaints by Barbara Bauer and her company, Barbara Bauer Literary Agency Inc., against Wikimedia Foundation, the owner and operator of online encyclopedia Wikipedia.

Bauer in court papers alleged that Wikimedia Foundation defamed her by publishing numerous false statements, including one that said she was "The Dumbest of the 20 Worst" literary agents and that she had "no documented sales at all."

Perri cited the Communications Decency Act, enacted by Congress in 1996 to promote free speech over the Internet. The act immunizes a provider of interactive computer services from liability for publishing content provided by another.

This judgment dealt only with Wikipedia, not the cases brought against the 19 other defendants.

Comments

[Mark A. York]

I got Wikipedia to remove the article because I didn't want the likes of Bauer to have that much recognition as a literary agent, which she isn't in the known sense of the term. Teresa's minions felt otherwise and brought this on by doing it in the first place. Not an appropriate venue for an encyclopedia.