WASHINGTON (AP) -- Ruling against big media companies in an information age dispute Monday, the Supreme Court said free-lance writers may control whether articles they sold for print in a regular newspaper or magazine may be reproduced in electronic form.
The court ruled 7-2 that compilation in an electronic database is different from other kinds of archival or library storage of material that once appeared in print. That means that copyright laws require big media companies such as The New York Times to get free-lancers' permission before posting their work online.
Justices Stephen Breyer and John Paul Stevens dissented.
At issue was how to treat copyright works when technological advances changed the way information would be available in ways neither the writer nor the publication foresaw.
Although seemingly esoteric, the copyright fight goes to the heart of the Internet's basic appeal to researchers and casual users -- how much information is available at the click of a computer mouse.
Large publishers argued that if they lost, they would probably remove a lot of material from electronic view rather than fight with writers over permission and fees.
The case turned on whether electronic reproduction of a newspaper or periodical constitutes a revision of the original print edition. Under copyright law, publishers do not need authors' permission to produce a revised version of the original edition.
The case largely affects articles, photographs and illustrations produced a decade or so ago -- before free-lance contracts provided for the material's electronic use.
Six free-lance writers sued The New York Times, Newsday, Time Inc. and other publishers over inclusion of their work in electronic databases. Some databases require the user to pay a fee, such as LEXIS/NEXIS, while others are available free over the Internet.
A federal judge first ruled for the publishers, throwing out the writers' suit on grounds that electronic databases are revisions under the copyright law.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York reversed in 1999, finding that copyright law required publishers to seek authors' permission.
The case is New York Times v. Tasini, 00-201.
