Supreme Court to Hear Appeal of Freelance Writers' Settlement

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 2, 2009 - 10:16am.

Washington - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear an appeal from publishers seeking to have a settlement over payment to freelance writers for work appearing in online databases reinstated, Reuters reported. In 2005, freelance writers were awarded $18 million in a federal court settlement with publishers over the past usage of their works in online databases.

Then in November 2007, a federal appeals court overturned the ruling, saying that damages could only be sought by writers who had registered their works with the U.S. Copyright Office -- and most of them had not.

The publishers involved in the ongoing litigation include News Corp.'s Dow Jones, The New York Times Co. and Thomson Reuters.

They intend to argue before the Supreme Court that the appellate court's decision conflicts with previous rulings from the Supreme Court and other courts.

The Supreme Court has indicated that it will focus its decision on the narrow question of whether federal courts are restricted in their jurisdiction over copyright infringement claims.

http://snipurl.com/cyjbm (DMW previous coverage)