Two major foundations have awarded grants to Authors Alliance, a nonprofit formed last year by Berkeley Law Professors Pamela Samuelson and Molly Van Houweling. The organization, which provides legal tools for authors to reclaim their copyrights from publishers, received $325,000 from the MacArthur Foundation and $30,000 from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Authors Alliance membership has grown to more than 500, and includes academics, biographers, fiction writers, and documentary filmmakers.