Writers bloc to defend their rights

UNESCO Courier, Jan, 1999 by Ethirajan Anbarasan

Print journalists are calling-usually in vain-for additional payment when their articles are reused in the electronic media

With Internet spreading like wildfire, authors around the world have been clamouring for protection of their copyrights. However, this has resulted in an increasingly tough battle with publishers who want writers to sign a contract giving away all rights, including electronic.

Until a few years ago, authors and journalists may not have bothered to scan through their work contracts with regard to copyrights. In fact, many magazines did not even send contracts to authors. Now both sides are careful about the mention of "copyrights" in the contract for reuse of articles and other creative work in Internet and electronic database systems.

Authors argue that print publishing is a one-time event bringing in one set of revenues, including advertisements. On the other hand, materials in electronic publications can be used repeatedly, each time potentially generating new advertisement revenues. "So we tell authors that it's a big mistake to grant permanent rights for a one-time fee," says Dan Carlinsky, vice president of the American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA), NewYork.

While some publishers are ready to pay, others maintain that once authors cede their rights they cannot claim additional payments for reuse of their material. In a case filed in 1993, a group of freelancers in New York challenged publishers and electronic reusers of published work, claiming copyright infringement. The case, better known as "Tasini Vs The New York Times", attracted widespread attention as this was the first new media copyright case of its sort in the United States. In 1997, a lower court ruled in favour of the publishers, saying the existing US copyright law allowed the publishers to reuse contributions "in any revision of that collection." The case has now moved to the appeals court.

"The present US copyright law does not state explicitly anything about electronic rights. Courts have just begun to consider writers' claims and there are demands to include electronic rights in the existing law," says Carlinsky.

On the other side of the Atlantic, though there are no specific regulations as yet governing the use of journalistic material in the electronic media, journalists and authors in many Western European and Scandinavian countries have reached partial or full agreements with publishers over copyrights and the Internet.

Copyright law that benefits authors

"The existing European authors' rights law is sufficient to handle the pay dispute between writers and publishers in electronic publishing. However, the system is different in Anglo-Saxon law," says Renate Schroeder, of the Brussels-based European Federation of Journalists.

The copyright law generally followed in Scandinavian countries, as well as in France and Germany, benefits the authors. When material is used again in electronic publishing, authors have the right to be consulted as to where and how it is used and to receive extra payment. For example, the leading French daily Le Monde entered into a two-year agreement with its staff in 1996 on electronic rights. From its annual earnings through electronic publications, it pays a percentage of its revenue from online editions and CD-ROM to all its staff members, whether or not their work has been used. "This agreement is the first of its kind in France and it is working well," says Michel Colonna d'Istria, chief of Le Monde's multi-media services.

On the other hand, in the Anglo-Saxon copyright model used in the US and the UK and adapted also by the Netherlands, publishers can and do use their economic power to gain the right to reuse articles and other creative materials after making a one-off payment. Authors in these three countries claim that the present law denies the right to compensation for the reuse of their materials. In 1997, however, three Dutch journalists for the first time won a court case against the newspaper de Volkskrant over republication of their articles without permission on CD-ROM and the WorldWideWeb.

The UK-based Jane's Information Group, publisher of Jane's defence magazines, demands all rights from authors around the world for both print and electronic editions. The magazine group maintains that its one-off fee includes all forms of delivery. "So far no one has complained," says a Jane's spokesperson.

Mike Holderness, who is active in the campaign for electronic rights in the UK for the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), says that the Anglo-American copyright system gives economic advantage to publishers and denies benefit to authors. "There is an obvious need to harmonize copyright laws within the European Union," he says.