Boston Globe can continue to rip off freelancers - other publishers may follow.

July 2, 2000 - According to a Massachusetts judge, The Boston Globe newspaper can require prospective freelance writers to give up all rights - even for work done in the past.

If The Globe wins in the upcoming class action suit, other newspapers, magazines and content providers could legally adopt the same, restrictive contracts.

Writers, photographers and illustrators - represented by unions and professional organizations - filed a class action suit on June 12, 2000 against the paper and sought an injunction to strike down the contract requirements and to nullify any document already signed.

In connection with the class action suit, the complainants asked for a preliminary order to stop the paper from demanding that freelancers sign the contract by July 1 or not work for The Globe. This is the request that Massachusetts Superior Court judge Carol S. Ball denied last week.

The contract in question requires that if a writer, artist or photographer want to work for the paper, they must grant The Globe a worldwide, fully paid license for the work - including work done for the paper in the past. Further, the freelancers must automatically grant The Globe permission, not only to publish the work, but to create derivative work (examples would include movies and television programs) and to sell the work to other companies. In essence, a writer trying to resell an article may find themselves competing with their own work, put up for sale by The Boston Globe.

However, The Globe purports that the freelancers will retain the copyright and can sell the work elsewhere after the paper publishes it originally.

Calls to the organization representing writers, The National Writers Union, had not been returned by deadline.

Read more about this case:

National Writers Union: Freelance Contributors Sue Boston Globe (June 12, 2000)

National Writers Union: Boston Globe Letter & Contract (April 2000)

National Writers Union: Boston Globe Contract Q & A