Going Digital?
From the Academi Newsletter:
Writers’ Copyright Protests Escalate
The following letter recently appeared in the Western Mail .
SIR – The National Library of Wales is currently digitising 90 Welsh periodicals and magazines. This project, Welsh Journals Online, aims to provide “free, online, searchable access” to complete runs of such titles as Barddas and Poetry Wales.
Set up by librarians and academics, the project does not seem to have consulted creative and professional writers or the bodies that represent them.
The project is receiving more than £840,000 in public funding. The Library, though, has not allocated any money for the people who wrote the articles, reviews, stories and poems that make up the magazines. Instead, it hopes that rights holders will allow their material to be used for free.
Writing is work. Professional writers are paid both for their work and for its re-use. In not making provision for the payment of copyright holders, the project is seriously flawed. Until this matter is addressed, writers who want to keep Welsh writing on a professional basis will not allow the National Library of Wales to digitise their work. They include:
| Sam Adams John Barnie Desmond Barry Gillian Clarke Anne Cluysenaar Tony Curtis Stevie Davies Maria Donovan Menna Elfyn Christine Evans Catherine Fisher Matthew Francis Philip Gross Paul Groves Graham Hartill Paul Henry Jeremy Hooker Mike Jenkins Nigel Jenkins Cyril Jones Stephen Knight Gwyneth Lewis Malcolm Lewis Hilary Llywellyn-Williams Gareth Miles Jan Morris Tony Conran Lynne Rees Deborah Kay Davies Richard Marggraf Turley Graham Mort Llwyd Owen |
Patrick McGuinness Christopher Meredith Catherine Merriman Robert Minhinnick Fiona Owen Richard Poole Clare Potter Oliver Reynolds Wil Owen Roberts Owen Sheers Meic Stephens Ifor Thomas Jeni Williams Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch Kevin Mills Duncan Bush Owen Martell Delyth George Harri Pritchard Jones Bethan Gwanas Tiffany Atkinson Angharad Price Sion Eirian Angharad Devonald David Woolley John Goodby Tony Brown Pascale Petit Norman Schwenk Meg Lewis Ioan M. Williams |
To add your name to this list in support of payment for writers, please email Oliver Reynolds: oreynolds@hotmail.co.uk
