On 24 April, the IFJ will be celebrating as usual the World Copyright Day. It will be the moment to highlight among international organisations, such as the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) and UNESCO, but also to newspaper owners, that contractual freedom is damaging to authors' rights/copyright and has to be challenged in order to guarantee a balance of power when negotiating contracts.
All too often, our colleagues are forced to accept contracts in which they forego any additional remuneration when their work is reused in the same media group, in other media, in databases or other platforms.
Apart from the devastating effects that such clauses have on the quality of information and pluralism, the author’s status is also called into question.
You too can take part in World Copyright Day by supporting our campaign for fair contracts and condemn the increase in contracts that undermine authors' rights/copyright in our profession.
- Download and post the
IFJ campaign logo on your website and social networks. - Encourage your members to share their experiences of unfair contracts on 24 April, on Twitter using #isitfair, e.g. “I have to renounce all my copyright for my articles #isitfair”.
- Make your government aware of the low-paid contracts which thousands of our members are obliged to sign, so that measures are taken to reinforce authors' rights.
For more information on the campaign
click here.
