Free-lance writers win Supreme Court case
Misc.
6/25/2001; 3:56:11 PM 'The court ruled 7-2 that compilation in an electronic database is different from other kinds of archival or library storage of material that once appeared in print. That means that copyright laws require big media companies such as The New York Times to get free-lancers' permission before posting their work online.'

Personally, I'm more intrigued by the idea that signing away "all rights" years ago wasn't enough to give the media companies the right to post stuff online. It leans towards the intepretation that one can only sign away existing rights, but not future rights. Whether or not that's right is an interesting question, if you think about it.