Reuters News Wire wrote:
> The 30-disc set depicted an exact electronic image of the original
> bound magazines, with pages presented two at a time in the very same
> sequence as in the original paper format. The user would see the
> articles, photographs and advertisements exactly as they had appeared
> in the original paper copies.
> Numerous freelance writers and photographers sued for copyright
> infringement and said they were entitled to additional compensation.
The article did not describe the terms in which the contributors sold
their work. Presumably in this case it was for a use in a particular
magazine issue.
It would appear in this case in essence NatlG merely reprinted an old
issue for which they already compensated the contributor. I don't
think contributors are entitled to any extra compensation if the
publisher simply issues a reprint of the original work, and that
happens often. In other words, if I sell a photo to NatlG and they
run it in an issue, and that issue is so popular that they reprint it
many times over, I am not entitled to any more compensation than if it
was a normal press run.
FWIW, I also want to note that the second hand price of old Natg Geo
is very low. My local library has a bookcase full of them for sale at
20c each and won't take any more donations to sell. They're not
moving very quickly. I like the issues from the 1950s and earliers
since the Bell System always had a nice full page ad on the last page
(there was a connection between the Bell System and Natlg Geo boards).
I got one ad showing "the voice with a smile" which I'm giving to our
Centrex operators.
FWIW, a lot of ads from the 1950s are from corporations touting their
defense work for the convert, such as missles and atomic energy. Lots
of ads had the symbol of an atom in them. In the 1950s companies were
proud of that, in the 1960s it became rather controversial.
Actually, some people on e-bay make a business of buying this off
stuff, clipping out the ads, and selling the ads. NatlG isn't so good
for this since the pages are small, but Fortune and Life magazines
have big ads (nice colorful Bell System ads, BTW).
I also picked up a bound volume from the early 1950s with an
interesting article on Long Island, but the bound volumes are stripped
of all ads, which can be more interesting than the articles
themselves.
[public replies please]
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: In the past, I wrote a few articles
which I sold, mostly to the Christian Science Monitor for their Home
Forum page; also an occasional crossword puzzle. These were in the
1960's, and the Monitor always paid _very well_ for articles and essays
and such they purchased, but the conditions were you gave them an
_exclusive_ use to the content. No one else could use the articles
(including yourself) and _they could use the articles when they pleased
and as often as they pleased. I think they paid me fifty dollars for
each my Home Forum articles and puzzles. I know it was always sufficient
to keep me in beer and cigarettes. PAT]
hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com