Freelancers drop Globe ruling appeal

Officially ending more than three years of litigation against The Boston Globe, a group of freelance writers and photographers said they will drop their appeal of a November 2002 ruling in favor of the newspaper.

The lawsuit, filed in June 2000, challenged a newly introduced Globe licensing agreement that allowed freelancers to keep their copyright, but gave the paper permission to reproduce their past and future work in other forms, including online, without additional compensation.

The suit over the freelancers' work was viewed by many as a test case in the battle over ownership of online content. The plaintiffs and their supporters argued that their work, when reused by the Globe, represented a valuable commodity for which the writer or photographer should be paid. The Globe argued that the suit would have infringed on the right of the company to establish the terms under which it does business with independent contractors.

In 2002, Suffolk Superior Court Judge Ralph D. Gants granted the paper's motion for summary judgment in the suit, ruling that "there was nothing that prevented the Globe from seeking to renegotiate" its relationship with freelancers.

Yesterday, plaintiffs' attorney Indira Talwani said, "We don't think Judge Gants understood the ongoing value of the rights issue here." She vowed that the freelancers would "keep as much public pressure as they can on the Globe." When asked about the decision to end the litigation, Talwani said, "Our concern" is that the appeals court "would rubber stamp" Gants's decision.

Globe spokesman BMaynard Scarborough issued a statement, which said, "The Globe's position has always been that the agreement with our freelancers was fair, and in fact more favorable than at many other newspapers. The contributions freelancers make to our newspaper are valuable to us and we're pleased that the matter of the lawsuit has now been resolved."

Mark Jurkowitz can be reached at jurkowitz@globe.com.