The Supreme Court has granted cert in Reed Elsevier v. Muchnick, a case arising from settlement negotiations following New York Times v. Tasini. In Tasini (full decision), the court determined that freelancers who had not explicitly licensed electronic publication rights to their works were due compensation for those electronic uses. A settlement was reached in 2005, but in 2007, the 2d Circuit Court of Appeals voided the settlement for lack of jurisdiction over the many unregistered copyrights at issue in the negotiations.
The Supreme Court has been considering the Reed Elsevier case for some time. They granted review yesterday of the limited question, whether 17 USC ยง 411-a restricts the subject matter jurisdiction of the federal courts over copyright infringement actions? The case will be argued in the fall.