Freelancers’ Settlement All But Dead – Now What?Irvin Muchnickbyline‚ Jan. 07‚ 2008Writers, publishers, information consumers – all of us – have a fine mess on our hands these days over at the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, and it has nothing to do with Google. Yet even many of the most seasoned students of copyright, class action and complex legal procedure can follow the goings-on only by rumor and a single cryptic report in The Newspaper Of Record. I suggest this has something to do with the fact that the case involves the economic interests of every newspaper and magazine in the land, and propose to help out. Nearly three years ago three authors’ organizations announced a global settlement with periodical publishers and their electronic database licensees and partners (LexisNexis and the like) in a consolidation of copyright class-action cases inspired by the 2001 Supreme Court decision Tasini v. New York Times. The Court had ruled that freelance contributors, as opposed to staff writers, retain control of the secondary rights to works originally published in newspapers and magazines unless there is explicit agreement to the contrary. In a nutshell, individual downloadable articles from products such as databases and website archives aren’t the same as new editions of entire collective works, such as library microfilm, which publishers are free to license and profit from without the consent of the copyright holders. |