NEW YORK, Sept. 28 (UPI) -- Publishers have filed suit against U.S. Treasury Department restrictions on publishing literature, research papers and other works from embargoed nations.
The impact of regulations against working with authors from nations such as Cuba, Iran and Sudan has only become clear during the last year, said the publishers.
The rules set by Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control require publishers to obtain a license from the government before promoting, contracting for, or editing works by embargoed nationals.
Those who proceed without a license face maximum sentences of 10 years in prison and fines up to $1 million per violation.
The legal action says the restrictions are impacting, among other things, scholarly works and resulted in the publication suspension of two books by Cuban scholars. The lawsuit said the printing of a paper on earthquake prediction by Iranian geologists was cancelled.
Publication of an Iranian anthology, including works exposing the turmoil and repression after the Iranian Revolution, is also in peril.
"Some of the work can't be published in Iran because of government censorship there," said Dick Seaver of Arcade Publishing. "If publication is blocked by government interference here, what's the functional difference between Iran's censorship and ours?"
