Electronic Publishers Win Big Over Freelancers
By Catherine Sansum Kirkman
Electronic publishers won a big victory over freelance writers in a recent court case brought by the president of the National Writers Union, Jonathan Tasini, against The New York Times, LEXIS-NEXIS, and other major online publishers. The case was brought as a test case by the freelance writers union, in an attempt to obtain compensation for use of their work in cyberspace. Although the case may be appealed, the electronic publishers were able to defeat it before it got to trial. Publishers are breathing a sigh of relief, and writers are licking their wounds, now that articles by freelance writers can be republished without permission or compensation as part of an online version of a newspaper or magazine.
The Tasini case was a big, big case. It was filed in 1993 in federal court in the Southern District Court of New York, known in legal circles as a leader in the area of copyright-law decisions, because of its location in New York City. The case focused on whether print publishers can acquire online rights from freelancers without using a written contract that specifically transfers the electronic rights. The writers argued that industry custom dictated that freelance writers only transferred "first-print" rights when they sold articles to a periodical. Other rights, such as syndication rights, had to be transferred by a separate written agreement. Also, the writers argued, the republication of works via a computer screen implicates the copyright law's separate "public display" rights, and the publishers needed to get separate permission to exercise these rights.
