Supreme Court Accepts Freelance Copyright Pay Case
The U.S. Supreme Court has accepted an appeal by Reed Elsevier, Thomson Reuters and other publishers seeking to reinstate a settlement providing compensation for the electronic republication of freelance articles.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals based in New York had tossed a nationwide 2005 settlement, worth as much as $18 million, according to Reuters and SCOTUSblog. The appeals court ruled in 2007 that a federal judge had no jurisdiction over infringement claims involving unregistered copyrights. Most freelance articles are not copyrighted, and the ruling scuttled hopes of a settlement, according to The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times.
The publishers had argued the 2nd Circuit ruling contradicted the Supreme Court’s 2001 decision, New York Times v. Tasini, which found freelancers have rights to their articles republished electronically. The Supreme Court said today it would limit its review to one issue: whether federal law restricts federal court jurisdiction in copyright infringement actions.
The case is Reed Elvesier v. Muchnick.
