Action on Authors Rights are a "grassroots group set up to campaign in the UK in support of authors’ rights." Their articles on the implications and dangers of the Digital Economy Bill are enviably clear and coherent. Although pitched at writers they are essential reading for photographers too.

The Action on Authors Rights Manifesto is equally clear and precisely highlights the grotesque deficiencies of the Digital Economy Bill:

Manifesto

Authors have the right to

• have their intellectual property protected by the state
• have their moral rights properly acknowledged and protected by the state
• decide whether and where they are going to publish, and in what format(s)
• freely negotiate their own publishing contracts and licensing agreements
• negotiate in person, or through agents of their own choice, as they prefer

Also on the site is the best coverage of the Google Books deal that we have seen anywhere. The resemblance between Google's attempts to seize control of other peoples' copyright work, and Extended Collective Licensing, which allows publishers to do exactly the same to any work within their reach, should not be understated. Here it is not.

As author Gillian Spraggs says at the site "Every age gets the culture that it pays for: pays for in money, and pays for in respect." We have always felt that the ultimate benefit of ECL will fall eventually to Google, not the publishers who hope to grab their own little piece of the same action via the DEB. That may be a temporary advantage over creators, but the public thirst for free will ensure Google wins. At some point Government is going to have to deal with Google itself adopting extended collective licensing and orphan works rights.

By giving the publishing lobby what it thinks it wants, Government may in fact be easing the success of the Google project of owning and exploiting all content it can get to. We have here an out of control food chain driven by power and greed and no sense of ecological sustainability. We believe it means economic extinction for most professional creators. We believe it means amateur content will be seized and abused. And now we wonder how long publishers will last, once Google has the means to subvert their exclusive copyright, using the same law they have wrought to subvert ours.