Writers, read your contracts
One of the most frustrating contract clauses a writer has to put up has to be that which allows a newspaper which buys your review or article the right to post it on a wire service. Imagine if an author sold their novel to a publisher, and the contract contained language that allowed the publisher to print and distrubute as many copies as they liked without renumerating the author. No agent would ever agree to it.
But this is essentially what this clause does to freelancer writers in the journalism world. It allows a newspaper chain to pay a freelancer a nominal fee ($100 say for an interview of a notable author of actor) and then turn this article into content which is licensed out to newspapers around the country. Some other chains reserve the ability to reuse material within their network -- also without paying the freelancer extra.
This seems doubly unfair, since most contracts kick any legal protection back onto the freelancer (in other words, if someone sues for libel, it's your butt on the line)., and the fee in the first place is never a living wage. So health care, working environment, materials, disability insurance: those are your problem. This -- among other things -- is how newspapers make 25 percent profits.
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posted by John Freeman 1:34:00 PM
4 Comments:
There's a class action lawsuit in the works hoping to get royalties for writers who have been ripped off this way, even if they signed away their electronic rights. I signed up for it a year ago and haven't heard a word of its progress. Does anyone here know about it?
The problem is that there's no good way to compensate reviewers whose work is picked up, say, by the Associated Press. That is, it's not really feasible because whether the review is republished elsewhere is unknowable. News organizations that belong to the AP just throw whichever stories they choose into a big bowl and other organizations can pick through and take what they want. But there's no system to keep track of who takes what. Devising methods to do so would be onerous and cumbersome in the extreme.
Another point is that any writer or photographer belonging to the AP is subject to these indignities, not just reviewers. And with reporters the situation is doubly painful because their bylines are often striped off the stories.
Dick -- are you talking about Tasini v. The New York Times? That was a class action lawsuit involving the National Writers Union, the Authors Guild, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, etc. on behalf of a gazillion writers whose work was being used electronically without their permission.
That case was settled for $18 million to be distributed to all the writers involved. You can learn all about it here: http://www.asja.org/media/nr050329.php
Freeman, you might think about contacting the National Writers Union or Authors Guild about this issue to find out how they can help you/us.
This contract situation is a mess, and it's getting worse. In recent months, I've gotten into some nasty contract negotiation situations with magazine that refuse to change their contracts. Several are now taking full or shared copyright on all work, and pointing to the Tasini lawsuit and saying, It's freelancers' fault we have to take more rights -- they sued us. Of course, they leave out the fact that if they hadn't used people's work without permission and without paying them, they wouldn't have been sued in the first place. It used to be that writers got paid for extra rights and each additional usage ... no so any more.
And don't even get me started on the pay rates at these places. Book review rates are tragic, and the per-word rates at most magazines haven't increased since the 70s ...
Thanks for jogging my memory, Rebecca -- it was indeed a class action based on Tasini. I checked the ASA web page
http://www.asja.org/media/nr050329.php
and then queried about the progress since last Sept. Just got this reply:
"Yes, some writers have appealed the settlement. Both sides have filed documents and oral arguments likely will be in June. Expect a decision later this year and then the monies will be disbursed."
We live in (and on) hope...
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