24 June 2003

Grievance settlement restores
freelancer's Internet rights

Canadian Media Guild | TNG Canada Local 30213

Freelancers who are members of the Canadian Media Guild will now be compensated for having their intellectual property posted on the Internet without their permission.

Also as a result of the settlement of a grievance, other freelancers may be eligible for payment as well. The CBC and CMG are now attempting to identify freelancers who have been in a similar situation to the test case. The Corporation is going through its records, and CMG is sending a special message to all current and recent freelancers.

The case in question dealt with a freelancer who signed a contract to write scripts for a radio series. Although the contract dealt only with radio rights, and although the freelancer had not signed away her copyright, the CBC went ahead and posted the scripts on one of its many websites — without compensation. When the freelancer discovered this, she called the CMG office and a grievance was filed shortly thereafter.

The case was settled by the Corporation and CMG just as an arbitration hearing was about to start. Under the terms of the settlement, the freelancer was compensated for the inappropriate posting of her material.

(This story first appeared on the Canadian Media Guild web site.)