Are newspapers now beyond the freelance grasp?

Writing, so I've been told, is a noble profession; a romantic profession, filled with stone faces curmudgeons, who sit behind gigantic oak desks, cigarettes hanging from their mouths, Vodka on the rocks in their hand, mercilessly grilling long lists of poor souls, in the hope of separating the truth from the bull.But in reality, we writers aren’t much different that everyone else. In the morning we feed our cats and send our kids off to school. When the workday ends, supper still has to be made, the dishes washed and the kids tucked in. Sure we are doing something we love, (believe me no one would stay in this profession if not) but like everyone else we still must feed our families.

So, it is not hard to see why writers get all up in arms when yet another large media conglomerate decided we are dispensable, and drafts a contract asking for everything - as the saying goes, except your first-born.

Typically, in these situations, writers scream and race to the courts, eventually the conglomerates are forced to back down, but it takes time, a lot of time. And during that time many extremely talented freelancers decide that this business is just not worth the hassle. And regretfully I’m here today to say that the next fight brewing looks like it will be with CanWest.

CanWest has come up with a new contract, one that demands

· Freelancers “hereby irrevocably grants and assigns to CanWest all rights of every kind in and to the Content (including copyright).”
· As well this contract forces freelancers to agree that “CanWest shall have the right to exclusively use and exploit the Content in any manner and in any and all media, whether now known or hereafter devised, throughout the universe, in perpetuity.”
· It also demands that freelancers agree they “have no right to re-sell or re-publish the Content without CanWest's express written permission.”
. And that the freelancer even wave “in favour of CanWest and its assigns, all "moral rights," something I strongly advise my writing student to never do! (A quick primer on moral rights.)

In a perfect world CanWest would pay freelancer a hefty price for all these rights, but in the real world newspapers still pay writers little for their work. That is why the ability to resell our work is so vital.

Now I could go on and on about all of this, but I’ll leave you now with someone else’s words. If you have a moment, check out author Brian Brennan's eloquent take on all of this.