As for Google, that seems grossly unfair to me.

The Google Settlement I am not going into. It is too complicated, but it calls into question whether someone else (Google in this case) has the right to publish part or all of our work online if we don't specifically notify them – for each work, in detail – that they can't.

How about the right to be read properly by a publisher.

The right to be treated as well as an established writer.

I know, pie in the sky, but still.

I like that "right to criticise".

An author's Bill of Rights would be a difficult one, though. We have very few rights, I think. And almost everyone you think of has to be followed by a proviso:

The right to write whatever you like, but not the right to publish whatever you like…

The right to pinch ideas – but not if it is plagiarism…

And so on.

What rights does an author have in fact?

Even copyright seems to be in doubt thanks to the Google Book Settlement!

Shouldn't there be an author's bill of rights too. I can think of a few rights there.