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The Supreme Court gives writers control of digital copies.

1 July 2001

The Supreme Court gives writers control of digital copies. Three comments from those involved:

Jonathan Tasini, president of the National Writers Union and one of six freelance writers who filed the lawsuit.

'Now, it's time for the media industry to pay creators their fair share and let's sit down and negotiate over this today'

Arthur Sulzberger.Jnr, publisher of The New York Times

'Unfortunately, today's decision means that everyone loses...The Times has lost this case and will now undertake the difficult and sad process of removing significant portions from its electronic historical archive. That is a loss for freelance writers because their articles will be removed from the historical record. Historians, scholars and the public lose because of the holes in history created by the removal of these articles from electronic issues of newspapers such as The Times.'

John Sturm, president of the Newspaper Association of America.

'What's sad is that this wholesale destruction of historical records will not lead to any benefit to the writers seeking redress from the court.'