Writers sue Web publishers, demanding back royalties General IP Issues8/15/2000; 9:39:26 AM 'Database operators frequently pay publishers for access to articles and books and charge customers to download them from thousands of publications, but they typically pay the writers nothing. That violates U.S. copyright law, according to the San Francisco suit, because the authors contend that they never signed their rights away and still own their work.'...'The difference between Napster and the database defendants involves more pronounced financial considerations. “Napster isn’t earning any money for what they’re doing,” Mr. Fergus says. “These people are selling” the files they have amassed.'On a very related topic, consider the Slashdot story "95 (thousand) Thesis For Sale".'Have you completed a Masters or PhD thesis in the last eight or so years? If so, it is probably for sale at http://www.contentville.com, a for-profit company which I understand I partially owned by NBC and Time. Mine is there and I never gave them permission to sell it. As far as I know, I am the sole owner of the copyright on my thesis. Even my ex-supervisor had to ask permission (he did) before he could make it available on a web site (for free, by the way).'Good stuff there too, but I would definately recommend reading the high-scored comments; not everything is as it appears.