[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 54 (Friday, May 3, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E702]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 INTRODUCTION OF THE ``FREELANCE WRITERS AND ARTISTS PROTECTION ACT OF 
                                 2002''

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. JOHN CONYERS, JR.

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 2, 2002

  Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, the advent of the Internet has created an 
entirely new market for the distribution of creative content, such as 
music, movies, news articles, and photographs. The desire for instant 
information has made it more important than ever to get that work out 
to millions of people quickly and to have the rights to the 
distribution of articles and graphics cleared immediately.
  As we saw from last year's New York Times v. Tasini case, however, 
the creators of information--freelance writers, illustrators, 
cartoonists, graphic designers, and photographers--often have not 
shared in the benefits of this new market. In some cases, large media 
conglomerates often force creators to sign away the rights to their 
works through ``take it or leave it''--or adhesion--contracts if they 
wish to have them published and distributed.
  Individual writers and artists don't stand a chance of negotiating 
favorable terms and fees when they must go up against media giants. And 
because many creators are not ``employees'' of the publishers, the 
antitrust laws forbid them from bargaining as a unit or even sharing 
information about the pricing of their work. Each freelancer must, 
therefore, go it alone and negotiate individually with the publishers 
who control the media outlets.
  I believe that copyright protection should benefit individual 
creators--not only media corporations. To remedy the imbalances between 
the media giants and freelance creators, Congressman Cannon and I are 
introducing the ``Freelance Writers and Artists Protection Act of 
2002.''
  First, this legislation gives freelance writers and artists an 
antitrust exemption so they can present a united front against the big 
media companies who have been forcing them to sign nonnegotiable 
contracts that surrender all their rights. In doing so, the bill makes 
it easier for freelancers to bargain fairly for their rights as a 
collective.
  In addition, because of the speed and nature of the publishing 
industry, these same freelance writers and artists often do not have 
time to have their works protected under the copyright laws before the 
publications they go into are printed. As a result, the creators may 
not receive relief under the copyright laws if their works are stolen. 
The bill remedies this by automatically protecting the individual works 
when the publication receives copyright protection.
  Finally, this bill addresses the problem of the theft of creative 
works that have not been released. There are creators who decide not to 
release an article, book, movie, or song, but others steal them and 
infringe on the creators' rights. The criminal copyright law penalizes 
those who infringe works having a retail value of $1,000 or more, but 
works that have not been released are not protected because they have 
no retail value. They are, however, valuable to their creators, and we 
need to close the loophole in the law that allows the theft of these 
unreleased or unpublished works. For that reason, the bill amends the 
law to say that the theft of unpublished works also can be a criminal 
offense.
  I hope this bill can be the start of productive discussions in the 
House and particularly in the Judiciary Committee about how we can 
enhance the power of freelance writers and artists and how we can 
protect their work.

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