IP: SEC IS ASKED to investigate the New York Times IPO?

[David Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

> From: Andreas Ramos <Andreas.Ramos () brio com>
> To: "'farber () cis upenn edu'" <farber () cis upenn edu>
> Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2000 11:39:33 -0800
>
> (More on the landmark case of the NWU vs. New York Times. The NYT was
> distributing content without paying the authors. The NWU won a major federal
> copyright lawsuit against the New York Times and basically the entire East
> Coast publishing industry. The NYT is trying to IPO their web site and has
> been "economical with the truth" in their SEC filings. More at
> http://www.nwu.org/tvt/0003sec0.htm
> --andreas)
>
> March 20, 2000
>
> Union Asks SEC to Probe New York Times; Massive NY City Pension Fund Acts.
>
> NEW YORK, NY: The National Writers Union (UAW Local 1981) has asked the
> Securities and Exchange Commission to probe statements by The New York
> Times, at a time when the nation's 11th largest pension fund has also acted
> to determine what liabilities media companies face in the wake of last
> Fall's landmark legal victory for freelance writers.
>
> The union released a March 13th letter to the Securities & Exchange
> Commission (SEC) in which the union formally asked SEC Chairman Arthur
> Levitt to investigate whether The New York Times, in official SEC filings,
> "failed to report significant liabilities facing the company as a result of
> a decision in a landmark lawsuit."
>
> The union's letter points out an obvious contradiction between the Times'
> representation before a federal court, on the one hand, versus its SEC S-3
> IPO filing for Times Company Digital, on the other hand. While claiming to a
> federal court that the decision exposed The New York Times and other
> publishers to "enormous potential liability," the Times represented before
> the SEC that "There are no legal proceedings to which The Times is a party
> pertaining to the business and operations of TCD, other than ordinary
> routine litigation that is incidental to the business of TCD and is not
> material to the business or financial condition of The Times or TCD
> [emphasis added].
>
> "We think the federal appeals court judges and the SEC have a right to know
> which of The New York Times' statements were true," said Jonathan Tasini,
> president of the NWU and the lead plaintiff in the landmark lawsuit. "And,
> if false statements were made, we would hope that severe sanctions would be
> brought against the Times."
>
> The union also released a copy of a February 28th letter written by New York
> City Comptroller Alan Hevesi to 36 media companies, expressing concern about
> the "potential liability of media companies" because of the landmark
> decision. The lawsuit refers to the September 24th 1999 landmark decision in
> the U.S. Court of Appeals, in which the court unanimously ruled that it is
> copyright infringement for a publisher to put a freelancer's work on-line or
> otherwise reuse or resell it without explicit written permission. Hevesi was
> writing in his role as investment adviser and a trustee for the five New
> York City pension funds totaling $90 billion.
>
> A number of pension funds nationwide are studying the liability issue. In
> addition to the New York City pension funds letter, the Longview Collective
> Investment Fund has asked five companiesDow Jones Interactive, American
> Express Publishing, Times Mirror Magazines, Time Inc. and The New York
> Timesto explain what action they are taking in view of the decision which
> determined that publishing companies, "were liable to freelance writers for
> violating the individual writer's copyrights."