RE: Double-licenses -- Tasini et al

[Terry Cullen <tcullen@seattleu.edu>]

That is an interesting development, especially since Mr. Tasini et al lost
the appeal (Oct. 97).  Are the freelance writers signing contracts that
include royalties for reuses by the publishers (such as in book
publishing), or just relinquishing rights?  Are they being compensated for
giving up the right to republish in local/regional publications, or losing
that income as a condition of first publication?  I haven't checked the
last _Writer's Market_ to see if it reflects this change of policy, but I
will do so this weekend.  And I'm especially curious to see if the smaller
publishers are following suit.

Thank you for the update.

Terry Cullen, Esq.
Electronic Services Librarian
Seattle University School of Law Library
950 Broadway Plaza, Tacoma, WA  98402-4470
Email:  tcullen@seattleu.edu
Phone:  253-591-7092  FAX:  253-591-6313

On Thursday, January 28, 1999 8:00 PM, Ann Okerson 
[SMTP:aokerson@pantheon.yale.edu] wrote:
>
> Karen Hunter sends the following message:
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: KABowen@aol.com
> Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1999 23:01:44 EST
> To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
> Subject: "Double-licenses" -- Tasini et al
>
> Terry Collins stated that cases such as Tasini v. NYT "make clear that
> many major publishers (e.g., New York Times...) neither require copyright
> releases nor sign contracts with authors for materials they publish."
>
> Since January of 1998 I have been serving on a National Research Council
> study committee on "Intellectual Property Rights and the Emerging
> Information Infrastructure."  One of the other committee members is
> Jonathan Tasini and he has been very active in educating those of us from
> the scholarly publishing world about the present relationship freelance
> writers have with major companies such as the NYT.  He contends there is
> not a single major media company that does not now require that all
> writers sign contracts giving the media company full rights in perpetuity
> in all media.
>
> Karen Hunter
> Elsevier Science
> k.hunter@elsevier.com