New York Times copyright row continues

The copyright battle between the New York Times and its contributors has taken a new turn, with The Authors Guild deciding to sue the paper on behalf of all freelancers.

The guild, plus freelance writers Derrick Bell and Lynn Brenner, filed a copyright infringement suit in a Manhattan federal court last week (3 July 2001).

Guild president Letty Cottin Pogrebin said: "We have taken this action to protect the economic interests of our members and all freelance writers. It was prompted by the Times' aggressive campaign of the past 10 days."

Since the Supreme Court's original decision last month, which ruled that the paper could not republish print edition work in digital format without the writer's permission, the Times has told all freelancers that it will remove articles from web sites rather than pay extra for them. Contributors are still being required to give away all electronic rights to their work if they want it published.

Derrick Bell said: "The Supreme Court didn't say the Times had to remove the articles, it said it had to pay for them. It stressed that the issue could be resolved through licensing systems like the one operated by the Author's Registry. But the paper won't even begin to negotiate payment for the work."

Paul Aitken, executive director of the guild, said: "The Times has gone to great lengths to avoid sharing some of its database revenue with its contributors, compelling many to retroactively surrender their electronic rights to their previous work without additional payment if they want to contribute to the paper now or in the future."

Lawyers acting for the writers, Kohn, Swift and Graf, released a statement saying they wanted to resolve the electronic copyright issue on a global basis.

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