Tuesday, November 7, 2000

U.S. Supreme Court to Decide Electronic Copyright Issue By ANDREA L. FOSTER The U.S. Supreme Court announced Monday that it will decide a case that pits freelance writers against The New York Times and other widely read periodicals. At issue in the case -- which could have repercussions for scholars and scholarly libraries -- is whether publishers violate writers' copyrights by posting their works electronically without their permission. The case, The New York Times Company v. Jonathan Tasini, affects scholars who write for general-interest periodicals because their work, like that of freelancers, is often reproduced in electronic databases and on Web sites. Mr. Tasini, the defendant, is president of the National Writers Union, a labor union for freelancers that is affiliated with the United Auto Workers. "All of us who write in ... a freelance capacity, and who are interested in having control over, and getting the benefit from, the things we write should be supportive of the National Writers Union," said Peter Jaszi, a professor at American University's Washington College of Law. The litigation does not affect scholars whose articles appear in scholarly journals. Authors typically transfer their copyrights to such a journal, allowing the publisher to disseminate the material online without having to pay the author for reprints, said Kenneth Salomon, a Washington lawyer who often represents colleges in intellectual-property cases. But the case could have broad implications for scholarly libraries. If the Supreme Court upholds the decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and rules in favor of the writers, the action could be detrimental to colleges, Mr. Salomon said. University libraries with CD-ROM's of newspaper articles that include freelance writers' works might be asked to pull the disks from their shelves, he said. Alternatively, the publisher would have to pay freelancers additional royalties, raising the cost of electronic databases for colleges. Library groups are divided on the issue, and the Special Libraries Association said it is remaining neutral on the case. "The library community shares the perspective of both sides," said Prudence S. Adler, assistant executive director of the Association of Research Libraries. "But our board of directors has signaled increasing support for the authors." The Supreme Court is expected to hear arguments in the case by next April. Easy-to-print version E-mail this article

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