Right to Write Mission Statement and Board of Advisors
RIGHT TO WRITE FUND
A Program of the Center for Ethics in Action
2008 Mission Statement
The Right to Write Fund is formed to be an educational repository and clearinghouse for the 21st century freedom of expression and “fair use” issues writers and publishers encounter when moving between the worlds of print, internet, film, the fine arts and new media. The Fund will collect and disseminate legal briefs, facts and analyses as well as literary and media accounts of copyright, trademark and other intellectual property statutes in order to define first amendment rights in a technological age. The Fund will promulgate and protect the democratic values of our founding fathers – free speech, the freedom to write, fairness, openness and honesty – while establishing the ground rules for future artistic expression.
Goals
1. To raise money for a Right to Write Defense Fund to cover legal expenses in the J.K. Rowling and Warner Bros. injunction and other possible legal actions against RDR Books.
2. To use additional funds raised to create a Right to Write clearinghouse and provide future resources for the Mission stated above.
Board of Advisors
Anthony Falzone is the Executive Director of the Fair Use Project at Stanford Law School. An intellectual property litigator, he has advised and defended writers, publishers, filmmakers, musicians and video game makers on copyright, trademark, rights of publicity and other intellectual property matters. Prior to his work at Stanford, he was a litigation partner in the San Francisco office of Bingham McCutchen. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School.
David Ardia, Director of the Citizen Media Law Project at Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet & Society was formerly assistant counsel at the Washington Post.
Secretary: Martha Ferriby , Director of the Hackley Public Library in Muskegon, Michigan, has served as President of the governing board of the Lakeland Library Cooperative, and is President of the Board of Directors of Jefferson Towers, low income housing for seniors.
Lizbeth Hasse , a graduate of the University of California’s Boalt Hall School of Law and a Fulbright Scholar, represents publishers, authors, print, film, and web journalists, musicians, directors and broadcasters at Creative Industry Law Group in San Francisco. Hasse has advised on legislative developments in intellectual property, media law and constitutional areas in a number of European, Asian and African “countries in transition.”
Arend D. Lubbers , President of Grand Valley State University from 1969 to 2001 is a historian and author of Old Hopes for a New Place.
President: Roger D. Rapoport , is Publisher of RDR Books as well as the author and editor of 17 books including the biography Citizen Moore.
Dan Royer is chair of the Department of Writing at Grand Valley State University.
Meredith Spear has consulted to health care enterprises nationwide while retaining a commitment to investigative reporting and journalistic excellence. She currently serves on the Boards of Mother Jones magazine and Social Venture Partners of Tucson which supports local literacy organizations. She also is a founding donor to Right to Write.
Treasurer: Anne B. Zill, President of the tax exempt, publicly supported Center for Ethics in Action, is also President, Fund for Constitutional Government, and Director of the University of New England Gallery of Art.
