Archive for the ‘Announcements’ Category

For release: Monday, June 28, 2010, 5 a.m.

Good News and Not So Good News in ERDC-Canwest Settlement:
Electronic Rights Recognized, But Compensation to Be Less Than Hoped

The Electronic Rights Defence Committee (ERDC) wishes that its settlements with parts of the Canwest communication empire would result in a lot more money in the pockets of freelance writers, but is pleased that the settlements include explicit recognition of the importance of protecting electronic rights and the need to compensate writers fairly for the use of their material.

The Honourable Justice Eva Petras of the Quebec Superior Court approved the settlements June 18, 2010. In March 2009, she had authorized the ERDC to proceed with a $33 million class action, originally begun in 1997, on behalf of freelance writers. At issue was work published in The Gazette that was being used electronically without permission and/or adequate compensation. For the last several years writer and translator David Homel has been the designated representative of the class which includes several hundred writers who produced thousands of articles.

The ERDC’s settlements are with Canwest Publishing Inc./Publications Canwest Inc.(which is the legal successor through amalgamation of Montreal Gazette Group Inc, Canwest Interactive and Infomart Dialog Limited) and Canwest Global Communications Corporation. Both are in protection-against-creditors proceedings before Ontario courts. This means that the actual amount of the settlements is undetermined because the creditors’ claims against the corporations are still being processed.

The ERDC’s claim against Canwest Publishing has been valued at $8,500,000 for voting and distribution purposes in respect of arrangements being worked out between Canwest Publishing and its creditors. The ERDC’s claim with Canwest Global Communications is valued at $500,000. In both cases the amounts that the ERDC will eventually receive on behalf of members of the class are likely to be very substantially less as the protection against-creditors procedures are wound up. The ERDC will hold the money and/or stock in trust until the class action is completely settled and a formula for distribution of the settlement to class members is approved by the courts.

“We are pleased that freelance writers will eventually receive some compensation for their work used electronically, and that the other side explicitly acknowledges “the importance of protection of electronic rights and fair compensation for the electronic dissemination of content,” said ERDC President Mary Soderstrom. “But we regret strongly that it has taken 13 years to get to this point, and that, because of the protection against creditors proceedings, freelancers will receive amounts much less than the face value of the settlements.”

She added that the ERDC also continues to maintain that contracts which freelancers have been forced to sign with The Gazette and Canwest are unfair.

The settlements themselves and the announcement of the class action can be found on the ERDC’s website http://www.erdc.ca

For more information:

Mary Soderstrom, ERDC president

Source: Chris DiRaddo

(Download PDF file )

Dear Friends

The Electronic Rights Defence Committee (ERDC) is pleased to announce it has reached a tentative settlement with two of the defendants in our long-running class class action arising from unauthorized electronic use of the freelance stories in The Gazette of Montreal. In addition, the Quebec Superior Court has ordered the posting of a Notice to Members of the class together with copies of the settlements. This starts the ball rolling toward a payout to class members. Links to the documents are below:

1.ERDC_Notice_to_members_2010-06-06_CGCC_+_LP_-FINAL_APPROUVE_FRANCAIS.pdf

2.ERDC_Notice_to_members_2010-06-06_CGCC_+_LP__FINAL_APPROUVE_ANGLAIS.pdf

3.ERDC_Transaction_Revised_2010-06-01_FINAL(2).pdf

4.ERDC_Transaction_with_Canwest_Publishing.pdf

The settlements are with Canwest Publishing Inc./Publications Canwest Inc.(which is the legal successor through amalgamation of Montreal Gazette Group Inc, Canwest Interactive and Infomart Dialog Limited) and Canwest Global Communications Corporation. Both are in protection-against-creditors proceedings before Ontario courts. This means that the actual amount of the settlements is undetermined at present because the creditors’ claims against the corporations are still being processed.

However ERDC’s claim against Canwest Publishing has been valued at $8,500,000 for voting and distribution purposes in respect of any plan of compromise or arrangement proposed by CPI to its creditors. The ERDC’s claim with Canwest Global Communications is valued at $500,000.

In both cases these amounts will be reduced very substantially as the protection-against-creditors procedures are wound up. It is possible that we could receive about 10 to 15 cents on the dollar. Certainly it will be months, if not years before we receive anything.

Both these settlements require court approval. We will have more to say about what they mean in the days to come.

The documents we’re sending you will also be posted on our website, http://www.erdc.ca, as well as on that of six writers organizations.

Please feel free to circulate the notice widely.

Cheers

Jack Ruttan, secretary
Mary Soderstrom, president

List of other organizations which will post the notices

http://www.sfpavocats.ca (Attorneys of the group Website)
http://www.writersunion.ca (The Writers’ Union of Canada (TWUC))
http://www.qwf.org (Quebec Writers’ Federation (QWF))
http://www.uneq.qc.ca (Union des écrivains québécois (UNEQ))
http://www.pwac.ca (Professionial Writers’ Association of Canada (PWAC))
http://www.ajiq.qc.ca (Association des journalistes indépendants du
Québec(AJIQ))
http://www.cfunion.ca (Canadian Freelance Union (CFU));

photo by Mary Soderstrom

As the natural world explodes with coming of summer, it’s appropriate that ERDC supporters remember the presence, and counsel of our late former Chair, Stuart Robertson, a passionate gardener. Present Chair Mary Soderstrom had a note on her blog when he passed last year, telling something of his contribution to the Committee. Other links are [here] and [here.]

It’s been 8 months now since Stuart left us. He was one of the founding members of the committee, and will be missed. It’s fitting that this has been a particularly good year for forget-me-nots.

Jack Ruttan, ERDC Secretary
Mary Soderstrom, ERDC Chair

The Electronic Rights Defence Committee’s annual general meeting will be
held beginning at 7:15 p.m. Tuesday, March 30, 2010 at the offices of
Sylvestre Fafard Painchaud, 740 Atwater (between St. Antoine and St.
Jacques on the west side, not far from the Lionel Groulx Metro station.)

On the agenda will be news from our longtime legal counsel Me Mireille
Goulet about the progress of the case, as well as a chance to meet Me
Catherine Sylvestre, a key member of our expanded legal team. Elections
of the ERDC executive committee will also be held.

The meeting should last about an hour to an hour and a half, and there
will be refreshments. It would be useful to know if you plan to attend:
please reply by e-mail to Jack, jack.ruttan090@sympatico.ca.

Jack Ruttan, secretary
Mary Soderstrom, chair

http://erdc.ca

Members have asked about fees for our legal team. The facts are the following:

From the beginning our lawyer Mireille Goulet had a contract giving her
25 per cent of an eventual settlement. The Fonds d’aide aux recours
collectifs (a Quebec government agency which provides seed money for
class actions) has advanced funds over the years, money that must be
returned when a settlement is reached.

After single-handedly winning class action authorization from Quebec
Superior Court last year (a really great feat: she was up against a team
of the biggest law firms in Canada), Me Goulet sought additional help for
the next steps.

The ERDC executive committee agreed to this last June, and Me Goulet
interviewed several possible legal teams. The class action specialists
Sylvestre, Fafard, Painchaud have agreed to come on board: the
extra-judicial fees due the firm and Me Goulet remain at 25 per cent as
before (plus taxes and reimbursement for disbursements), unless the
case goes to appeal; when the percentage rises to 30 per cent. If the
case goes to the Supreme Court, the percentage will be 33 per cent.
Please note that all plans for compensating freelance writers when the
case is settled must be approved by the courts.

Mary

Jack

This is the ERDC’s new web site. It’s under construction, and more will be added and changed as it gets shaken out. Please watch this space for further announcements.

After more than a decade, the Electronic Rights Defence Committee (ERDC) has received authorization from Quebec Superior Court to proceed with a class action suit against some of the biggest names in Canadian media.

At issue is electronic use without permission or compensation for work by freelance writers in The Montreal Gazette. The defendants are the Montreal Gazette Group, CanWest Global Communications, Hollinger Canadian Publishing Holdings, CanWest Interactive, Southam and Southam Business Communications, Infomart Dialog and Cedrom-SNI.

In February 2008, the Honourable Eva Petras, J.S.C., heard three days of arguments from Mireille Goulet – the ERDC lawyer, and a team of lawyers representing the defendants. The Justice’s decision was rendered March 31, 2009. It authorizes the ERDC to institute class action proceedings with writer and translator David Homel as its official designated member. The class action group includes all freelance writers whose articles, originally published in The Gazette, have been allegedly illegally reproduced on the Infomart data base since 1984.

The next steps will lead toward a trial on the merits of the case, a process which may take several years to reach a conclusion.

The ERDC case is one of several in North America seeking compensation for unauthorized electronic use of freelance writers’ work. 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. The US$ 18-million class action settlement in the United States which followed from the Tasini vs. New York Times case is currently before the US Supreme Court, which has agreed to decide whether a lower court has jurisdiction to approve settlement agreements. The Association des journalistes indépendants du Québec (AJIQ) is also currently in the process of undertaking a class action against several Quebec media providers.

Link to judgment (in English) http://www.jugements.qc.ca/ (Search for
Superior Court decisions in March 2009 (cour superieure, keyword: ERDC)

The Electronic Rights Defence Committee will hold its annual general meeting
at:

7:30 p.m.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Dino Den Room
Westmount YMCA
4585 Sherbrooke West, Westmount

(Parking in the Westmount Library lot across the street. Access by 24, 138 and 104 buses.)

Come at 7 p.m. and we’ll share some refreshments. There will be a very short executive meeting before the AGM, in order to approve the minutes of our last meeting: all are welcome for this portion.

Hello all,

And now we have very good news. Our lawyer Mireille Goulet has received a cheque for more than $10,000 from the Fonds d’aide aux recours collectifs. The money comes in response to our request for support for our class action authorization, particularly for Mireille’s hours and hours of work that went into the hearing in February.

Jack Ruttan, ERDC Secretary

Mary Soderstrom, ERDC President

The Electronic Rights Defence Committee will have its day(s) in court next week.

The hearing before Judge Eva Petras begins Monday, February 25 and runs for three days (Feb 26 & 27). Our lawyer Me Mireille Goulet is hoping that we will have a good crowd to show the flag, particularly on Monday which is when she kicks off the proceedings. Plan your schedule so you can be at the Palais de Justice Montreal, 1 Notre Dame East (between Notre Dame and St. Jacques at boul. St. Laurent).

at 8:50 a.m. Monday, February 25, 2008.

Court Room 16.01, 16th Floor.

This hearing is for the authorization to proceed with the class action. We are hoping to indicate to the court that this case is of interest to writers across the country.

We have received support from several writers organizations, including The Writers Union of Canada (TWUC), The Professional Writers Association of Canada (PWAC), and the Union des Écrivaines et des Écrivains Québécois (UNEQ), as well as Heather Robertson, who is leading a similar class action against the Thomson Chain, in Ontario (see below).