Le blogue

21 février 2008

Recours collectif contre la Gazette

Nicolas Langelier

Comme vous le savez peut-être, l'AJIQ a intenté en 1999 des procédures en recours collectif contre les principaux éditeurs québécois. Nous réclamons une compensation de 30 millions$ pour l'utilisation non autorisée des textes de pigistes sur la base de données de CEDROM-SNI/Eureka. Ce recours suit présentement son cours devant les tribunaux.

Des collègues anglophones ayant collaboré à la Gazette, regroupés sous le nom de Electronic Rights Defence Committee, ont entamé une démarche semblable en 1997. Leur demande : une compensation de 25 millions$, pour des infractions remontant à 1985.

Le groupe aura finalement une audience la semaine prochaine afin qu’un juge puisse autoriser ou non la poursuite du recours collectif. Pour cette occasion, ils demandent aux journalistes pigistes qui le peuvent de se présenter au Palais de justice pour manifester leur appui. Voici plus bas un courriel de Tracey Arial, une pigiste montréalaise, donnant plus de détails sur le recours et les procédures de la semaine prochaine.

Hi all:

Excuse me for this late notice, but the Electronic Rights Defence Committee is finally arguing that their case should be certified as a class action at the Montreal Court House next week. The hearing before Judge Eva Petra begins Monday, February 25 and runs for three days. The Palais de Justice de Montreal is located at 1 Notre Dame East (between Notre Dame and St. Jacques at St. Laurent. (I don't know which court room it will be in yet, but should know later this week or on the weekend).

We need as many writers in the court room as possible to show that we all agree that the ERDC represents all of us, especially on the first day. The case begins at 9am, so interested people should be there at 8:30. (I can't be there on Monday, but am hoping to go on Tuesday. The case also runs on Wednesday.)

I'm sending this to every email writer list I have, so some of you may receive it more than once, while others may have already received something from Jack Ruttan, Craig Silverman or some of the others who will be there on Monday. If so, I apologize, but thought you would prefer getting the information too many times rather than not at all:)

The backgrounder provided by Mary Soderstrom, the President of the ERDC follows:

Backgrounder:

On April 7, 1997, the Electronic Rights Defence Committee (ERDC) took the first steps toward a multi-million dollar class action lawsuit in Quebec Superior court against Southam Inc, CEDROM-SNJI, Infomart-Dialog and Southam Business Communications for 37,000 instances of copyright infringement of freelancers' work dating back to 1985.

More than ten years later, the ERDC is still battling to win recognition of the fact that for years freelancers' work was (and frequently still is) reproduced electronically without consent or compensation. David Homel has been our class representative since 2003 (our first class representatives Nancy Lyon and David Fennario had to withdraw) and the case has been modified to reflect changes in The Gazette's ownership. The defendants now are Montreal Gazette Group, CanWest Global Communications, Hollinger Canadian Publishing Holdings, CanWest Interactive, Southam and Southam Business Communications, Infomart Dialog and Cedrom-SNI). Making these changes has slowed the case down, but we also have met with delaying tactics on the other side: it took nearly a year to arrive at a mutually agreeable date for the class authorization hearing now set for February 25-27, 2008.

In early 2007 because of hints from the other side, we thought we might be on the road to a negotiated settlement. Our lawyer Me Mireille Goulet met twice with lawyers for the defendants to present a proposal elaborated by the ERDC executive. It asked for $25 million to be shared among several subclasses of Gazette freelancers as well as future contracts with fair compensation for electronic rights and explicit recognition that copyright remains with freelance writers. The response didn't arrive until July: it was an offer of $100,000 which the ERDC executive agreed was inadequate.

Other information about class actions against newspaper and media over the issue of electronic rights grabs:

1. In October 2007 the Canadian Supreme Court ruled five to four in the Heather Robertson vs. Thomson case that freelancers do indeed hold copyright on their work reproduced in electronic data bases. This is good news, although the closeness of the decision is disappointing. Now that the points of law have been settled, the Robertson vs. Thomson case must go to trial, most probably later in 2008.

2. The US$18 million class action settlement in the United States which followed from the Tasini vs. New York Times case is currently stalled in the courts. Some class members have contested the settlement, so even though the process of finding who is eligible to receive money began in the summer of 2005, no cheques have been given out.

Tracey Arial, Writer

Catégories: Droits d’auteur, Le blogue

Le blogue

21 février 2008

Recours collectif contre la Gazette

Nicolas Langelier

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