In a landmark decision, a US Court of Appeals struck down an agreement between freelancers and publishers regarding payment for reproducing articles in online editions. One part of the decision seems particularly chilling for free-lancers;
Judge Chester J. Straub wrote that federal copyright law allows claims for damages only by writers who have registered their work with the United States Copyright Office. The vast majority of freelancers did not register, so he said the courts had no jurisdiction over their disputes, and the case should not have been approved as a class-action suit.
To my unlawyerly mind, this means that writers must officially copyright every single word they write in order to receive protection. This ruling may open the door to rampant theft of writer’s work.
Thanks to Michael Downend for flashing this news along to me. Unfortunately, the link to this article doesn’t work here, as the New York Times protects its website with registration requirements. Ironic, is it not?
Sorry, comments are closed.
Comment by
Jeremy Osborne
1 Dec 2007
Hi Tom,
It appears the link to the article is broken. I tried to find it in a search but couldn’t. I wanted to read the article myself and then read the court report (if it was linked) before making any decisions about this.
Comment by
Jeanne Dininni
1 Dec 2007
Tom,
The worst part about this is that, for years, writers have been lulled into a false sense of security by being told that their works were copyrighted the moment they created them–regardless of whether or not they decided to register them with the U.S. Copyright Office. Looks as if we’re now beginning to see the limitations of such “natural” copyrights!
Thanks for this important info!
Jeanne
Comment by
Tom Colvin
1 Dec 2007
Jeremy, sorry about the broken link. I’ve revised my post accordingly — with a note of irony.
Tom
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1 Dec 2007
[...] Breaking News: Court Rules Against Freelance Protection at Becoming a Writer Seriously. [...]
Comment by
Scott
2 Dec 2007
I am wondering how this will affect Canadian writer’s.
I will have to look into this and our laws, but will this prove to be the same issue for Canadian copyrights?
Comment by
Tom Colvin
2 Dec 2007
I finally found another posting about this decision at respected CNET:
http://www.news.com/Court-voids-deal-to-pay-freelancers-for-work-sent-to-Web/2100-1030_3-6220850.html
And here’s some history from earlier on in the case:
http://freelancerights.blogspot.com/2007_03_01_archive.html
I have absolutely no idea how this ruling will impact Canadian writers, nor even where it goes from here for US freelancers.
In the process, I’ve just realized that my Comments Box is not “url friendly.” Does anyone know a Word Press comment plug-in that works better than this, preferably allowing a link, or at the very least wrapping the url text?
Tom
Comment by
Tom Colvin
5 Dec 2007
Writers Digest editor Maria Schneider in her blog The Writer’s Perspective wrote yesterday about the copyright decision, with some useful detail and a couple of additional links. She points out that it costs $45 per copyright. Multiply that by every article we write? Articles that might not earn much more than $45 in the first place? This ruling may be very serious indeed for freelancers! You can find her post at:
http://www.writersdigest.com/writersperspective/Is Copyright Now Necessary .aspx