and very good news today from the US Supreme Court: Free-Lance Beat Media Cos. in Court. This is just as important as any music-related decision, and the problem has been evident for much longer, as media companies of all sizes have either republished work (for profit) without additional payment to the freelancers or bullied them into signing (still valid, alas) contracts that severely limited their rights. But the Court held that publishers may not so brazenly disrespect authors rights - if they want to republish an article, they can pay for the right:
The Authors and Publishers may enter into an agreement allowing continued electronic reproduction of the Authorsf works; they [...] may draw on numerous models for distributing copyrighted works and remunerating authors for their distribution.
