Case (Almost) Closed

March 30th, 2005 · 2 Comments
by Booksquare

The long-running lawsuit by various authors against The New York Times and others regarding compensation for republication (or, we suppose in some cases, publication) of works in databases and online has been resolved. The issue, essentially, involved generating revenues from different distribution streams but not compensating authors for the use of their work.

Yes, bad. Very bad.

Interestingly, some of the terms of this settlement hew closely to something we covered last week:

The writers’ representatives said that publishers including The New York Times Company; the Time Inc. unit of Time Warner; and Dow Jones & Company, publisher of The Wall Street Journal, had agreed to pay writers up to $1,500 for articles with copyrights registered by the writers.

Writers who failed to register their copyrights will receive up to $60 an article, the writers’ group said.

If you do nothing else this week, learn how to register your copyrights (second link below takes you to more discussion and resources). Thank you.

File Under: Tools and Craft

2 responses so far ↓

  • The Happy Booker // Mar 30, 2005 at 6:37 pm

    Thanks for this link on the “whys and hows” to register your aritcles. For those of us who make our “living” as freelancers, this is incredibly important information. You would be surprised (or maybe not) where some of my articles have turned up! Again,the internet is a very good thing! Wendi (still groovin’ on your new design and layout, would love to talk blog tech-stuff with you!)

  • Booksquare // Mar 31, 2005 at 9:00 am

    Wendi — you are on my list to harass!!! This week, I have had to (shudder) work. Five years ago, when I made the decision to leave my icky corporate job, I set my departure date in accordance with my personal life. How was I to know it was the birthday of a close friend? Since then, he has made me do penance for abandonment by sucking me into “projects”. It keeps the cats in food — and around here, that’s all that matters.

    I was interested to learn that you can bulk register copyrights. And, no, I wouldn’t be surprised. The husband did an interview with Marty Willson-Piper of The Church sometime in the late eighties…it still shows up on the Internet in the oddest places.