nettime: Writers Versus Publisher

[Pit Schultz <pit@contrib.de>]

[received via RRE. this contextualizes the 're:distribution' 
thread at nettime-t@mail.thing.at, -- and please try to 
use direct e-mail for quotes which are not of general interest ;)]

Date: Thu, 2 May 1996 08:06:41 EDT
From: Alexandra Owens/ASJA <75227.1650@COMPUSERVE.COM>
To: Multiple recipients of list JOURNET <JOURNET@qucdn.queensu.ca>
Subject: Writers Versus Publisher

The Authors Registry (212-563-6920)
The Authors Guild (212-563-5904)
American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA) (212-997-0947)

                                               For immediate release
                                                         May 1, 1996

         AUTHORS' GROUPS JOIN TO SUPPORT FREELANCE DAVIDS
        AS E-RIGHTS COURT BATTLE AGAINST GOLIATHS HEATS UP

   Authors' organizations representing tens of thousands of writers
yesterday submitted a "friend of the court" brief in support of
several freelancers who are embroiled in battle with the New York
Times, Time Inc. and other major publishers and database producers
over the hot writers' issue of the 90s: electronic rights.

   The show of solidarity came from the Authors Registry, the new
royalty collecting and licensing agency that counts more than
50,000 enrollees, and two leading writers' groups--the Authors
Guild and the American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA).
The lawsuit, proceeding in U.S. District Court in New York City,
is backed by the National Writers Union.

   Defendants are the publishers of the Times, Sports Illustrated
(Time Inc.) and Newsday (Times-Mirror), and the producers of the
Nexis and UMI article databases.

   At issue is whether the publisher defendants, after initial
publication, had the right to license the database producers to
sell articles by freelancers in online and CD-ROM formats without
permission of the authors. The defendants maintain that no permission
or extra payment was needed. The writers and their supporters argue
that since, under the law, freelancers own the copyrights in their
work, and the writers involved had not licensed electronic rights
to the publishers, the additional use constitutes infringement.

   Atlantic Monthly, also a defendant when the lawsuit was filed in
December 1993, recently settled with the writer whose work it had
sublicensed for electronic use. Terms of the settlement have not
been made public, but Atlantic now says it will negotiate electronic
rights with freelance contributors.

   Originally, 11 writers were involved in the lawsuit, but in the
nearly two and a half years the case has plodded through the court
schedule, depositions and motions, several have dropped out.

   Both sides--the five remaining defendants and six remaining
plaintiffs--have filed for summary judgment. U.S. District Judge
Sonya Sotomayor is scheduled to hear arguments on the cross-motions
in June. If neither side prevails, a trial would likely be ordered.

   "I am enormously appreciative that the Registry, the Guild and ASJA
have supported our position," said the plaintiffs' lawyer, Emily M.
Bass of Burstein & Bass. "They have spoken very eloquently on behalf
of their members and very forcefully on behalf of all writers. Their
brief brings home very clearly the economic impact that a ruling in
favor of the defendants would have on freelancers."

   The "friend of the court" brief, prepared by Authors Guild lawyers
for the Registry, the Guild and ASJA, points out that new technologies
"extend the shelf-life of the contributions to periodicals by making
the articles perpetually available for resale anywhere in the world."

   The brief continues: "The overwhelming majority of publishers
procure specific licenses from authors for these electronic uses.
To our knowledge, only defendants have claimed that the Copyright
Act itself allows these specific uses without license."

   The writers' groups argue that the defendants' interpretation
of the law "distorts the plain language of the statute, its
legislative history and the clear intent of Congress, demonstrated
over and over in the statute, that the market must properly reward
authors as well as their publishers for their valuable work in order
to encourage continued production of useful information.  That
fundamental policy of copyright demonstrates, we believe, that these
plaintiffs own the reproduction rights that the publisher defendants
purported to grant to the database defendants."

   As money flows into cyber-publishing, the right to profit from
electronic use of articles has become a growing issue with writers.
Now, as the Registry, the Guild and ASJA noted in their brief, the
New York Times predicts it will take in $80 million in royalties over
the next five years from the publisher's portion of search and
download fees paid by users of the Nexis online database.

   To the freelancers, that would be good news except that the Times
intends to keep all the money. According to Contracts Watch, an ASJA
bulletin that keeps tabs on freelance rights issues, some periodicals
have begun to split with authors the royalties received from such
ventures as the Nexis and UMI databases while others pay fees for the
rights.

   The Authors Registry was established in 1995 chiefly to collect
electronic-use royalties of the sort that the defendants have refused
to pay. It quickly gained wide support, now counting more than 30
writers' organizations and 95 literary agencies among its endorsers.
The Registry began operations in February 1996.

                                ###
Contacts:
   Authors Registry - Paul Aiken, 212-563-6920
   Authors Guild - Kay Murray, 212-563-5904
   ASJA - Dan Carlinsky, 212-997-0947

# Pit Schultz, Kleine Hamburger Str. 15, 10117 Berlin, pit@contrib.de


--
*  distributed via nettime-l : no commercial use without permission
*  <nettime> is a closed moderated mailinglist for net criticism,
*  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
*  more info: majordomo@is.in-berlin.de and "info nettime" in the msg body
*  URL: http://www.desk.nl/nettime/  contact: nettime-owner@is.in-berlin.de