Publishers and Authors Bring Suit Against Treasury Dept.

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A Press Release forwarded from the Association of American Publishers, 
FYI.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Publishers and Authors File 
Suit Against Treasury Department

Seek to Roll Back Restrictions on Publishing Authors
 from Embargoed Countries

New York, NY (EMBARGOED UNTIL 12:01 a.m., September 27, 2004) - Calling
the Treasury Department's continued attempts to exert control over
publishing activities involving information and literature from countries
under U.S. trade embargo a violation of the essential right of all
Americans to learn about the world, a coalition including leading
publishers and authors associations filed suit today against Treasury's
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in federal court in New York.

The Association of American Publishers Professional and Scholarly
Publishing division (AAP/PSP), the Association of American University
Presses (AAUP), PEN American Center (PEN), and Arcade Publishing are
asking the court to strike down OFAC regulations that require publishers
and authors to seek a license from the government to perform the routine
activities necessary to publish foreign literature from embargoed
countries such as Iran, Cuba, and Sudan in the United States.
Representatives of the plaintiffs' organizations expressed frustration
over a series of OFAC rulings that have created uncertainty and confusion
among publishers fearful of incurring prison sentences of up to 10 years
or fines of up to $1,000,000 per violation.  Those rulings and the
regulations they interpret mandate that Americans (1) may not enter into
transactions for works not yet fully completed, (2) may not provide
"substantive or artistic alterations or enhancements" to the works, and
(3) may not promote or market either new or previously existing works from
the affected countries.

The group challenges the regulations on the grounds that they violate the
Trading with the Enemy Act (TWEA), the International Emergency Economic
Powers Act (IEEPA) and the First Amendment.  TWEA and IEEPA were twice
amended by Congress, in the Berman Amendment and the Free Trade In Ideas
Amendment, to make clear that the statutes exempt transactions involving
"information and informational materials" from trade embargoes. The
AAP/PSP, AAUP, PEN, and Arcade contend that OFAC's regulations directly
contradict the statutes that authorize trade sanctions and endanger
publishers, authors and the public's constitutional rights.

"Our most basic liberties are violated when we, as publishers, have to
either ask the government for permission to publish, or risk serious
criminal and civil penalties if we do not obtain permission," said Marc
Brodsky, chairman of the AAP/PSP and executive director of the American
Institute of Physics. "How can the United States uphold our position as a
beacon for the free exchange of ideas and science if we ourselves censor
authors because of where they live?" Mr. Brodsky continued.

"The OFAC regulations are arbitrary and counterproductive," added PEN
American Center president Salman Rushdie. "For example, OFAC says
publishers are free to publish 'pre-existing' texts from these countries.
Yet the countries currently under U.S. trade embargo routinely prevent
important work by writers and scholars from seeing the light of day.
American writers and publishers are being told that unless they get a
license from OFAC, they may not work with their censored colleagues in
these countries to bring their works into print."

"It is quite troubling that we will be risking criminal penalties if we
proceed with the publication of The PEN Anthology of Contemporary Iranian
Literature, which will present works created by Iranian writers, poets,
and critics since the Iranian Revolution that expose the turmoil and
repression of recent years," said Dick Seaver of Arcade Publishing.  
"Some of the work can't be published in Iran because of government
censorship there.  If publication is blocked by government interference
here, what's the functional difference between Iran's censorship and
ours?"

"This is not a hypothetical situation-these rulings are already having a
chilling effect," said Peter Givler, executive director of AAUP.  "For
example, one of our members, The University of Alabama Press, has had to
suspend publication of two books by Cuban scholars in the fields of
archeology and history.  Both include material otherwise unavailable to
their colleagues abroad. The journal Mathematical Geology cancelled
publication of a paper by Iranian geologists that presented a new
methodology related to earthquake prediction.  These are only two examples
of the books, articles, and scientific research that Americans may never
have access to because of OFAC's regulations."

Since the effect of these OFAC regulations became clear late in 2003,
publishers, authors, and public interest groups have pursued a number of
paths to making OFAC enforcement consistent with the protection for
"information and informational materials" mandated by Congress in the
Berman Amendment and the Free Trade In Ideas Amendment.  "We have decided
to pursue the legal challenge because our efforts have not yet yielded a
resolution that is satisfactory on either the law or the principle,"
explained Mr. Brodsky.

Edward Davis and Linda Steinman of the New York office of Davis Wright
Tremaine are lead counsel for the plaintiffs.  Marjorie Heins of the
Brennan Center for Justice at NYU and law professor Leon Friedman are
co-counsel for PEN and Arcade.

For links to the relevant OFAC rulings and additional materials, visit
http://aaupnet.org/ofac.

About the AAP/PSP 

Members of the Professional/Scholarly Publishing (PSP) Division of the
Association of American Publishers, Inc. (AAP) publish the vast majority
of materials used in the U.S. by scholars and professionals in science,
medicine, technology, business, law, reference, social science and the
humanities. The Division's (www.pspcentral.org) 182 professional
societies, commercial publishers and university presses produce books,
journals, computer software, databases and electronic products.

About the AAUP 

The AAUP (www.aaupnet.org) counts among its members 111 nonprofit
scholarly publishers affiliated with research universities, scholarly
societies, research institutions and museums located in 43 states.  
Collectively they publish around 10,000 books each year and over 700
journals in virtually every field of human knowledge.

About PEN American Center 

PEN American Center is an organization of over 2,500 prominent novelists,
poets, essayists, translators, playwrights, and editors. As part of
International PEN, it and its affiliated organizations have defended free
and open communication within and among nations for more than 80 years.
The 2,500 PEN American Center (www.pen.org) members are a major voice of
the national and international literary community.

About Arcade

Arcade Publishing, Inc. (www.arcadepub.com) is an independent book
publisher based in New York City. Founded in 1988, it publishes fiction
and nonfiction by authors from around the world, including works by some
of the most prominent authors of our time.  Arcade is the publisher of the
upcoming PEN Anthology of Contemporary Iranian Literature.


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 Contacts:   
Anna Kushner (PEN)
212-334-1660 x106 
anna@pen.org

Brenna McLaughlin (AAUP)
212 -989-1010 x24 
bmclaughlin@aaupnet.org

Marc Brodsky (AAP/PSP)
301-209-3100 (office)
202-415-1152 (mobile)
Brodsky@aip.org