Could Writers Throw a Monkey Wrench into Publishers' Cyberspace Plans?
August 22, 1996 - Freelance writers' growing militancy could put a crimp in
magazine and newspaper publishers' plans for profits from the new electronic media.
In fact, says Terry King, dissatisfied writers could "threaten the whole enterprise."
But Harper's Magazine says its new arrangement with freelancers is proving
to be a solution to the problem.
King, quoted in the current issue of the influential Washington-based lawyers'
weekly Legal Times, in a featured article titled "Writers of the World Unite,"
is operations manager of the Authors Registry, the not-for-profit licensing and
royalty collection agency for writers.
The Registry, formed last year, was sparked by the explosion of electronic
publishing. It is loosely modeled after the music world's ASCAP, founded more
than 80 years ago when, in a similar industry change, songs that had brought
income only from sheet music sales began to yield royalties from radio, records
and live performance.
Today, after a few years of sometimes fragile relations, many periodical
publishers pay freelance writers for the right to remarket their work in electronic
formats. Others have resisted.
But increasingly, freelance writers are willing to challenge publishers who keep
on using their work in new media after having paid for only the long-time standard
right to use it once, in print. And to those publishers who try to force writers
to turn over extra rights without extra dollars, many writers are saying no.
Now that the Authors Registry is delivering royalties and fees to freelance
writers, says King, it's in publishers' best interest to pay for reusing their
work. If they don't, he suggests, contributors will block use of their material
on Web sites and in research article databases, which, since they are sold on the
merits of their comprehensive collections of thousands of articles, can ill afford
to have chunks of their content lacking because of authors' objections.
Publications such as Harper's, Publishers Weekly and The
Nation, the article noted, are the first to agree to use the Authors Registry's
services. The article also reported that the agency this month began to issue its
first payouts, totaling more than $150,000, to hundreds of writers around the country.
The checks, ranging from a few dollars to nearly $1,500, cover license fees for
photocopying and publishers' splits of income from electronic publishing.
Harper's said last week its contributors are pleased with the magazine's
new practice of splitting electronic database income with them. "Before, some writers
and agents allowed us those rights; others didn't," Harper's vice president and general
manager Jeanne Dubi told Contracts Watch, the widely read electronic newsletter
from the American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA). "But in the past several
months, since we changed our contract and started sharing income through the Authors
Registry, we've been able to acquire electronic rights for every original piece in the
magazine. We seem to have gotten rid of a big headache."
Dan Carlinsky, another spokesman for the Authors Registry, told Legal Times
reporter Carrie Johnson: "What we've done in creating the Registry is to make it doable
for publishers who want to do the right thing; and for those who don't, we take away
their excuse."
Since its founding, the Authors Registry has gathered in its corner as cooperating
organizations virtually every important writers' group and nearly 100 literary agencies,
whose members and clients total more than 50,000. Those writers are eligible to enroll
without charge. Other, unaffiliated writers may join as individuals for $10.
Copyright ©1996 - 2005 The Authors Registry.
All rights reserved.
