They should think long and hard before signing contracts in perpetuity. Renewable contracts are preferable because they will enable a freelancer to adjust to the inevitable changes that are occurring in publishing and the Internet. A contract should ensure additional compensation to a freelancer if a publisher seeks rights beyond one time use. Here is another way of stating it. To freelancers, the Internet is a vein of gold.
Editorial archives are the vein, hidden from view and waiting to be tapped.
As the Internet matures, those freelancers who are compensated for the re-use of their archived materials are likely to reap financial rewards. But those freelancers who, without additional compensation, allow publishers to re-license their content may end up reaping a fool's gold. Their ability to profit for the re-sale of their archives will be usurped, ironically, by their own content, which their assigning publishers will continue to license.