ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline
Volume 10, Number 50
May 7, 2001

In this issue:

Supreme Court Decision on Tasini Major Pronouncement on Copyright 
Law in the Digital Age


	Yesterday, the Supreme Court affirmed the copyright 
privileges of freelance writers in The New York Times v. Tasini, 
issuing a decision that is a major pronouncement on issues of 
copyright law in the digital age. 

The Court voted that freelance writers can retain copyright 
privileges on works that were originally published in newspapers 
and periodicals and then were licensed by the publishers to 
commercial electronic databases. In siding with the plaintiffs in 
the case, the Court rejected the publishers' argument that a 
ruling for the authors would have "devastating" consequences. 

ALA commends the Supreme Court ruling that calls for compensation 
to freelance writers for the use of their work.   However, this 
ruling presents significant challenges to libraries because of the 
possibility for incomplete archival databases. This is because 
older works currently reside in electronic databases for which 
seeking retroactive permission may be difficult and because the 
publishers have threatened to delete the articles from the 
databases to reduce the publishers' liability for infringement.

Freelance authors should be compensated for their work, but the 
public interest in having access to their material should also be 
recognized and respected - without having to create a crisis that 
the publishers had suggested would be inevitable if the authors 
were to be victorious in this case. 

The ALA/ARL amici curiae (friend of the court) brief suggested 
that there are constructive ways for the courts to address the 
remedial phase of this case which is fair to freelance authors, 
the commercial electronic database publishers and the public.  The 
Supreme Court expressed the same view, noting that the parties, 
the courts and Congress could "draw on numerous models for 
distributing copyrighted works and remunerating authors for their 
distribution."  

Whatever the outcome of this case, the nation's libraries and 
archives continue to provide access to the historical record of 
periodicals and newspapers.  The Supreme Court's ruling recognizes 
that certain archival media, such as microfilm and microfiche, do 
not infringe freelance authors' copyrights.  Thus the historical 
record will continue to be available to researchers and the 
public, which is a matter of utmost importance to librarians.



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ALA Washington Office, 1301 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Suite 403, 
Washington, D.C. 20004-1701; phone: 202.628.8410 or 800.941.8478 
toll-free; fax: 202.628.8419; e-mail: alawash@alawash.org; Web 
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