TC Media defence of new contributors' agreement skates around the importance of moral rights

In recent weeks, the site Story Board, maintained by the Canadian Media Guild and the Canadian Writers Group has carried a great deal of information about the revised contributors' agreement being demanded by TC Media. Effectively, the new agreement would -- without compensation -- take all copyright from its many freelance writers and require a waiver of their moral rights.

TC Media has attempted to explain why it feels it needs these new and sweeping rights and yet why it is hoping that longstanding relationships with freelancers may be maintained. In a telephone interview between Susan Antonacci, Executive Director, Brand Development for TC Media Consumer Brands and Storyboard,  Antonacci tried to soothe concerns about the new agreement and its terms:

“What I can say is that we have great relationships with our writers and we’ll do everything that we can to promote our contributors and work with them moving forwards.”

 The detailed and very useful report of that conversation was published on March 1.

Of particular interest is a theme that Antonacci returned to several times, which can be characterized as "don't worry, be happy". For instance, in the matter of moral rights, she says that it would be "very rare" that the company would repurpose a writers' work and take off the byline. Her argument is that TC Media needs to be able to adapt content for
different platforms, for instance to better fit a smartphone or tablet. However this is a profound misunderstanding of her company's concept of moral rights; there is absolutely nothing in current arrangements that would prevent any publisher from adapting text to show to advantage on, say, a smartphone. 

But moral rights is about the integrity of the work and the contributors' agreement, as written, gives TC Media the right to alter the work in any way it wishes, without consultation or compensation. Essentially, requiring the waiving of moral rights means the writer loses total control over how their work is packaged, resold, republished, reworked, merged with other works or even refocussed (say, to the antithesis of what the writer intended).

Freelancers sometimes take the question of moral rights too lightly, in favour of arguing over fees (as important as they are). It is no comfort at all that this major consumer publisher also treats moral rights as being a mere trifle.  

Freelancers'  reluctance to let an apparently arcane principal get in the way of an assignment may seem simply pragmatic. But losing control of their work, without a say in the way it is used, means that they may lose what little leverage they have with publishers. 

Related posts:

• New Transcon freelance contract even more demanding
• Canadian Living EIC Antonacci promoted to new brand development role
• Best Practices Guide for Canadian magazine industry released for discussion and comment*
• Something solid to say about freelancer-publisher relations in the Canadian magazine industry

*disclosure: I was involved in the development and final draft