A proposed settlement in a class-action publishing lawsuit could divvy up as much as $18 million dollars among qualifying freelance writers.
Anyone who's written a freelance article since 1977 should check out this site, FreelanceRights.com, which has been set up about the settlement.
The class action lawsuit was filed on behalf of thousands of freelance writers whose stories appeared in online databases without their consent. Now that a deal has been reached, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, the Authors Guild and the National Writers Union have asked for court approval of an $18 million settlement and expect preliminary court approval of the settlement within the next month.
Under the terms of the settlement, publishers (including
The New York Times, Time Inc.,
The Wall Street Journal) and database companies (including Dow Jones Interactive, Knight-Ridder, Lexis-Nexis, Proquest, and West Group) agreed to pay writers up to $1,500 for stories in which the writers had registered the copyright in accordance with timetables established in federal copyright law. And even writers who failed to register their copyrights will receive up to $60 per article.
The amount paid will depend on a number of factors, including whether the writer registered the copyright, the original fee paid for the article, the year it was published, and whether the writer permits future use of the article in the databases.
To get the latest info, you can sign up for a mailing list on the site and you'll get an e-mail when the settlement is final, telling you exactly how to make claims.
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