No Right to Write Biographies

With regards to Bob Sipchen’s article on L. Ron Hubbard’s biography, I have to disagree that one has a right to use the right of freedom of speech to invade another’s privacy (“Who Is the Owner of the Written Word?” March 12).

You see this in all quarters: the paparazzi that haunt the movie stars’ every step, the tabloids that stoop to fictionalizing people’s lives for a headline, unauthorized biographies that are intentionally slanted to excite sales.

It goes on and on. Can anyone tell me what right a writer has that allows him to produce a biography of another’s life without that person’s consent and make money from the sale of the books?

I don’t care if no more biographies are written for the simple reason that they are not accurate. They can’t be. The author wasn’t there. He has to resort to other person’s opinions of what happened. How distorted are those? How does the author know who is exaggerating? Who has an ax to grind? Recordings are probably accurate up to the point they are taken out of context.

Who can second-guess someone’s motives? The list goes on and on.

GERRET WIKOFF

Los Angeles