NEW YORK – Attorneys representing the more than 8,000 members of the Authors Guild and other freelancers in their class-action suit against the New York Times have reached agreement with the Times regarding its campaign to remove freelance articles from electronic databases unless the authors of those articles agree to waive their rights to compensation. The Times had been running print ads encouraging writers to waive their rights. The Guild views the campaign as coercive and an improper communication of settlement offers to the freelancers represented in the class action.

Under the agreement, which was finalized early last week, the Times has ceased its ad campaign. It is also providing information for freelancers about the class-action lawsuit on New York Times Web pages and in written materials that are being made available by mail through the Times.

In return, attorneys for the Guild and other freelancers agreed to withhold a motion for a temporary restraining order requiring the Times to drop its ads and take down its freelance article "restoration request" Web page, which provides a form for authors to waive their rights to compensation for their contributions to the New York Times database. That Web page now contains a hyperlink to an Authors Guild Web page that gives freelancers detailed information about their rights.

Following the Supreme Court's decision four weeks ago in New York Times v. Tasini, in which the newspaper was found to have infringed the copyright of freelance authors by including their works in electronic databases without permission, the Times had announced that it was obliged to remove numerous freelance articles from those databases unless authors released the Times from all liability for copyright infringement, past, present, and future.

On July 3, the Guild and two freelance authors sued the Times for copyright infringement. In a press release, the Guild said that the Times' campaign seeking a waiver of rights had prompted its quick filing of the lawsuit, for which the plaintiffs seek class-action status.

"This agreement between the Times and the Authors Guild is an encouraging and important first step," said Letty Cottin Pogrebin, a freelance author and president of the Guild. "We hope it bodes well for a fair and speedy resolution of our lawsuit."

"The goal, of course, isn't just to inform authors of their rights," said plaintiff Derrick Bell, a visiting law professor at New York University and member of the Guild's governing council, "but to reach an agreement in which freelance authors' contributions to the Times' electronic archive remain available to the public and the authors share in the fees the Times receives for electronic uses of those articles."

The Authors Guild, founded in 1912, is the largest organization of published book authors and freelance journalists in America.

Web pages mentioned in the release:

New York Times freelance article "restoration request" page:

www.nytimes.com/freelance

Authors Guild freelance rights information page:

www.authorsguild.org/nytclassaction.html