CTVglobemedia Inc., Thomson Reuters Canada and The Gale Group have agreed to pay an $11-million settlement in a class-action lawsuit launched in 1996 by freelance writer Heather Robertson.
The long-running case originated with Robertson, who disputed the inclusion of articles she submitted to the Globe and Mail's print edition into electronic databases without proper compensation.
A founding member of the Professional Writers Association of Canada, Robertson submitted articles to the Globe for its print edition that were then included in three electronic databases: Info Globe Online, an electronic version of the Canadian Periodical Index as well as in a CD-ROM that contained a year's worth of several Canadian newspapers.
She filed the class-action lawsuit over the unauthorized reproduction of her work as well as that of thousands of other freelance writers.
In 2006, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that newspapers and magazines do not have the right to transfer articles from their print editions into databases without the consent of the writers, saying that the result is "a different product that infringes" the creators' copyright.
Robertson called the settlement "fair and reasonable." She said the case "has really made people aware of the importance of our intellectual property and of getting fair compensation for it."
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