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The Supreme Court on Tuesday resurrected a possible settlement in a class-action lawsuit brought by freelance writers who said that newspapers and magazines had committed copyright infringement by making their contributions available on electronic databases. The proposed settlement was prompted by a 2001 decision from the Supreme Court in favor of six freelance authors claiming copyright infringement in The New York Times Company v. Tasini. After the Tasini decision, many freelance works were removed from online databases. Most publishers now require freelance writers to sign contracts granting both print and online rights. After the decision, the authors, publishers and database companies who were parties to several class-action lawsuits negotiated a global settlement that would pay the plaintiffs up to $18 million.

A decade-old legal battle comes to an end as 17 major networks and production studios, along with seven talent agencies, agree to pay $70 million to thousands of writers.

Science fiction writer Zhou Shaomou has filed a lawsuit with the People's Court of Beijing for copyright infringement. Zhou claims in his suit that 80% of "Avatar"'s key elements and plot are the same as his novel, "Tale of the Blue Crows," which was written in 1997.

"The Supreme Court on Tuesday resurrected a possible settlement in a class-action lawsuit brought by freelance writers who said that newspapers and magazines had committed copyright infringement by making their contributions available on electronic databases. "

Here's an update on AOL's citizen-journalism site, Seed. "In what he hopes will be the first big demonstration of the "crowdsourcing" potential of AOL's new Seed.com service, former New York Times writer Saul Hansell says he is looking for writers who will write up interviews with all of 2,000 or so bands and artists at the SXSW music festival in Austin. The assignment will involve "real reporting," Hansell said in an interview, in which writers will have to pick up the phone and call the band or artist and write up a 1,000-word interview in question-and-answer format, as well as a 300- to 500-word biography. The price for this assignment? The princely sum of $50."

"In a lengthy article in New York magazine that hit the Web late on Sunday, writer Gabriel Sherman quotes a source high up in the media industry echelon who says Murdoch is "pretty tightly wound up over Google and has been ready to sue them...He doesn't trust them at all." The lawsuit, presumably, would come if Google refused to stop indexing News Corp. search results without paying a fee for them."

Columnists are struggling to survive in today's media landscape. At best, they are hanging in there. Only about 20% are actual employees of newspapers rather than free-lance writers. Some columnists are writing blogs and books instead. But, like we mentioned in class last week, it is very very difficult to generate income from blog writing.

Helium is simultaneously an online community for writers and a directory for user-generated articles. Writers can submit articles to 24 different channels (business, entertainment, travel, etc.), write for the side of a heated debate, try to capture publisher writing assignments bounties or win user-voted Helium writing contests. Users get to rate submitted articles so the best writing rises to the top.

Amazon is playing hardball with book publishers. The Seattle online bookseller says it will give authors a 70% cut of the sale of e-books sold for its Kindle readers, essentially offering writers a way to bypass traditional book publishers.

NBC plans 20 pilots this year. Remember that after the writers strike everyone said pilots (and scripted TV) are dead? Besides that, the article is mostly a rehash.

Emil Malak has sued James Cameron writer for copyright infringement, claiming that Avatar is based on a screenplay he wrote called Terra Incognita in 1998. Malak has said that Avatar, the highest-grossing film of all time, bears a striking resemblance to his Terra Incognita, a screenplay he wrote and first copyrighted in 1998.

""Over the past several decades, our industry has consolidated from literally dozens of independent entrepreneurs and suppliers, including many writer-owners making innovative and groundbreaking programming to a handful of large media conglomerates most often controlling content from start to finish," Wells said. The result, he said, is that decisions on which shows go on television are based more often on money than quality. "

"Are newspapers dead, dead, dead? If you can believe everything you read in them, apparently so. Hal Fuson, a veteran of 44-years in the news business, didn't think those obituary writers had their stories straight. In fact, they were reporting myths about the dire state of the industry as though they were facts. When Fuson, who is a member of First Amendment Coalition's board, recently retired from Copley Press, decided to set the record straight. 'I had a few things to get off my chest,' Fuson writes, 'So I agreed to be interviewed by a journalist I trust: myself.'"

What impact does media consolidation have on creative programming? This blog post explores the impact of media ownership on programming and creative labor, with quotes from WGA President John Wells.