For those SFWA (or wanna-be) writers.
This
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And the Other Thing
Plea to Mr. John Scalzi. I know you're not going to end your haitus just because of my teasing here. I hope you're being productive with the time (it looks so from Ficlets and By The Way). But, seriously dude, please run for SFWA President next year to help end this kind of stupidity. I'm hoping by that point to have qualified for membership. I really want to belong (it's one of my writer goals), but if I have to swear to defend these actions or "Shades of Grey" I will probably pass on joining. GriefCom is great, I'd like to be able to access it. The other things SFWA offers would be excellent. But this organization really needs to pull it's executive-branch head out of its RIAA wanna-be ass. You're the candidate that can do that, or at least start the turn of the ship.
4 comments:
I'm with you, if being a published author means having earned the stripes to join this club, I'll pass on joining thank you very much.
Ken, yeah. There's this Code of Conduct thingie. While the majority are really good points to live by, some of the implications of #1 bug me. Specifically the "patent, and trademark" clause. While, of course, we should be respectful of eveyrbody's intellectual property, I (as others) don't see it as the writer organization's balliwick to be enforcing these areas. And, IMHO, I think Mr. Burt is in violation of #10 of this Code of Conduct.
But yeah, after reading the whitepaper for "Shades of Grey" and realizing that not only did the executive level of SFWA approve this, they also didn't block a questionable loan made to file a patent on this tech (which, BTW, is old NSA work, from the 80s).
I think I understand the 'Shades of Grey' monies are to be paid back.
This brouhaha is rather depressing.
Camille, yes, Mr. Burt has made a big show of promising to pay it back Real Soon Now. There was a post on one of the blogs saying that he had paid it back, but I haven't seen anything confirming that. Since SFWA has gone to interior dialog again (after the last election which had at least some issues forced into the open) it's difficult to tell.
And I agree about it being depressing. SFWA membership was one of my writing goals. It isn't as bright a hurdle anymore.
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