The Web Writer's Guide
This detailed reference allows those who write Web content a clear, concise set of tools and strategies to write efficiently and effectively.
TABLE OF CONTENTS The Web Writer's Guide
Chapter 17: Contracts
Technology is rapidly creating new forms of media. As we grapple with the development of databases and online archives, new clauses are popping up in writers contracts. More futuristic media forms are on the horizon. Publishers are creating contracts that demand more rights from writers, but these contracts do not offer additional compensation for those rights. Because the Internet offers users easy access to the works of writers through publications and databases, writers should be better compensated for their work. The more that writers negotiate for improved working conditions, which includes better contracts and fair pay, the more that all writers will benefit now and in the future.
Knowing Your Rights
According to Doug Isenberg, an attorney in Atlanta and the publisher of Gigalaw.com, a Web site that provides legal information for Internet professionals:
Negotiating a contract in the online world is not very different from negotiating a contract in the offline world; however, depending on the type of contract involved, some issues are especially important. For example, if the contract is for the creation of content that is to be published on the Internet, then specific permission needs to be granted for that use. A number of recent cases have illustrated this point very clearly.
In one case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, a number of publishers, including the New York Times, failed to obtain permission from freelancer writers to publish their articles in CD-ROM format and in online databases; as a result, the freelancers sued...
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