On Tuesday, the announcement from the American Society of Journalists and Authors, the Author’s Guild, and the National Writers Union regarding an $18 million settlement hit the wires. The associations filed a motion for court approval of the settlement in a class action suit they and 21 freelance writers filed years ago. The original case went to the Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of the writers in 2001 (Tasini vs. New York Times), but sent the decision about an actual amount back to the lower court. Although the Supreme Court case was hailed by the freelancers, many information professionals worried, with good reason as it turned out, that freelance-written articles would simply be withdrawn from online databases. Who’s on the hook for the $18 million? According to the press release, it’s The New York Times, Time Inc., the Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones Interactive (which is not half of Factiva), Knight-Ridder (which owned Dialog at the time), LexisNexis (the original suit named Mead Data Central, the previous owner of LN), ProQuest, and West Group. Prolific freelancers could realize as much as $1,500, while writers who didn’t register their copyrights could receive only $60 per article.

It’s still not a completely done deal — preliminary court approval is expected “within the next month.” And I suspect, with ownership changes in the information industry, that who exactly is responsible for cutting those $1,500 or $60 checks will be a continuing bone of contention.

Watch for an Information Today NewsBreak on the subject.