FREELANCE RIGHTS: Introducing 'The Crimes of Thomson/Gale/Information Access Company'

Found this via the Copyright & Intellectual Property discussion list. A multi-part story that traces the origins back to 1994. I wonder if something like this will could occur with EBSCO or another database vendor? Also, how will this case impact libraries and users of this information?
FREELANCE RIGHTS: Introducing 'The Crimes of Thomson/Gale/Information Access Company': "To help you sort things out, your humble blogger introduces a multi-part series entitled “The Crimes of Thomson/Gale/Information Access Company.” The Canada-based Thomson Corporation is one of the principal defendants trying to buy off the entire freelance writing community with a piddling settlement of $10-to-$18-million, accompanied by a release of all future claims and no royalty system to ensure that independent creators will have a dignified share of the large and inevitably growing commerce of cyberspace."