Freelance scribblers, photographers, and others on the Internet just won a big one from a federal appeals court: publishers cannot reprint their articles, photographs, and other works online without their permission.
The defendants in the case included such heavyweights as the New York Times, Sports Illustrated, Newsday, and the Lexis/Nexis database. It began when six writers in 1993 accused these and other media companies of republishing their work without permission. The New York-based National Writers Union says the appeals court ruling could mean a flood of new legal actions from other writers.
"This is a slam dunk for writers and artists," says NWU spokesman Jonathan Tasini, who was also the lead plaintiff in the case. The appeals court returned the case to a lower court where damages to the six writers will be decided.
The appeals court ruled that electronic databases differ "significantly" from print editions because they contain "thousands" of articles which could be retrieved without referring to the original edition.
An attorney for one of the publishers, Bruce Keller, says it's not certain whether the publishers will appeal the ruling. The publishers argued that electronic databases are just revised versions of original publications, says ZDNet News, and that federal law didn't require them to pay writers extra for them.
