Newspaper publishers in Canada own the copyright to their papers and the articles written by their staff in the course of their employment, but they do not have the right to reproduce the articles of individual freelance authors, said Canada’s highest court on October 12, 2006.
In 1995, Heather Robertson, wrote two articles published in The Globe and Mail. One of which was written pursuant to a written agreement, the other pursuant to an oral agreement. Her objection was to the publication of her articles in three electronic online databases that, Robertson contended, were not part of her agreement. Her action against the publishers of the Globe was certified as a class action, with the class consisting of all contributors to the Globe.
The Supreme Court of Canada concluded that they were confronted with two different but overlapping copyrights in that a newspaper publisher does not have any rights in freelance articles themselves but does have a distinct copyright in the newspaper in which the freelance articles appear. They concluded that a newspaper may reproduce freelance articles, in their entirety or in part, in a compilation or “works that represent a substantial part of the original paper or collective work.”
They found that one of the databases – a CD-ROM – was a reproduction of the newspaper as a whole and, accordingly, the newspaper publisher within its copyrights to reproduce it. They dismissed the appeal with respect to the CD-ROM.
The Court held, however, that the other two databases violated the Robertson’s copyright in her articles because the databases reproduced freelance articles as individual pieces and, as such, were beyond the copyrights of the publisher. Freelance authors who do not consent to the publication of their articles in collections of individual works are entitled to be compensated for their work, said Justice LeBel.
