The Supreme Court on Tuesday resurrected a possible settlement in a class-action lawsuit brought by freelance writers who said that newspapers and magazines had committed copyright infringement by making their contributions available on electronic databases.
The proposed settlement was prompted by a 2001 decision from the Supreme Court in favor of six freelance authors claiming copyright infringement in The New York Times Company v. Tasini. After the Tasini decision, many freelance works were removed from online databases. Most publishers now require freelance writers to sign contracts granting both print and online rights.
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The publishers in the suit included Reed Elsevier, The New York Times Company, the Thomson Reuters Corporation, Dow Jones & Company, now owned by the News Corporation, and Knight Ridder, which the McClatchy Company bought in 2006.
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On Tuesday, in Reed Elsevier v. Muchnick, No. 08-103, the court unanimously reversed the lower court ruling. In an opinion by Justice Clarence Thomas, the court said some plaintiffs’ failure to comply with the registration requirement did not deprive the lower courts of jurisdiction to consider the settlement. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who had ruled in favor of the publishers in Tasini as a trial court judge in New York, did not participate in the Supreme Court ruling.
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