Second Heather Robertson Settlement: The second Heather Robertson settlement was approved on May 2 by Justice Carolyn Horkins of the Ontario Superior Court.
The settlement is in relation to a class action lawsuit launched on behalf of freelancers by Heather Robertson against Toronto Star Newspapers Ltd., Rogers Publishing Limited, CEDROM-SNi Inc., ProQuest and CanWest Publishing Limited. A separate settlement was reached with CanWest Publishing Limited and was approved by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on June 16, 2010.
The lawsuit alleged that the above organizations infringed the copyright of freelance authors who wrote articles and other pieces in publications published by Toronto Star Newspapers Ltd., Rogers Publishing Limited or Canwest Publishing Inc. by subsequently disseminating these works in online databases without obtaining permission.
View the settlement approval notice in English
View the settlement approval notice in French
Any freelance author that may have written works for any of the above organizations could potentially be covered by this settlement and be eligible for compensation from the settlement fund of approximately $7.9 million. Click here to view the list of publications covered by this settlement.
The deadline to submit a claim under this settlement is Saturday, October 15, 2011 at 5:00 p.m. EDT. For more information on making a claim and to access the settlement claim form, please click here.
For more information on this settlement or if you have any questions about making a claim, please contact Koskie Minsky LLP by email at [email protected] or by phone at 1-866-777-6343.
Amended Google Settlement: On June 1, U.S. District Court Judge Denny Chin held a quick status conference with Google, the Authors Guild and the American Association of Publishers on efforts to reach a new agreement after the Amended Google Settlement was rejected by Judge Chin on March 22. The parties asked for an additional 60 days to continue work on reaching a new settlement to lawsuits launched against Google that alleged that its scanning/digitization of books for its Google Book Search program infringed copyright in the United States.
Another status conference is scheduled for July 19 in New York.
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