At Issue: E-Rights for E-Writers
Misc.
3/30/2001; 11:05:04 AM

'Tasini et al. v. The New York Times et al. pits members of the National Writers Union against media corporations The New York Times, Newsday, Time, Lexis/Nexis, and University Microfilms.

'The case will decide whether freelance writers should be paid royalties when publishers redistribute their work in electronic databases or CD-ROMs without their permission.

'It is now up to the judges to decide how to apply the 1976 Copyright Act to an electronic technology that wasn't even around when many freelancers were signing these contracts. That decision may not come until June.'