Hot News Doctrine Gets New Life

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Paul Levy <plevy () citizen org>
> Date: March 19, 2010 1:33:48 PM EDT
> To: dave () farber net
> Subject: Hot News Doctrine Gets New Life

> A federal judge in New York has breathed new life into the hoary  
> "hot news" doctrine, holding that an online news service that  
> specialized in obtaining information about stock recommendations by  
> financial services firms and reporting them quickly both infringed  
> the firms' copyrights by quoting too extensively from the  
> recommendations, and violated the "hot news" doctrine by  
> "misappropriation" of the fact that "buy" or "sell"  opinions had  
> been expressed.
>
> This same theory has been used by major media organizations to shake  
> a stick at online new sites, aggregators and search engines such as  
> Google, yet I wonder whether entities like the Associated Press will  
> be entirely pleased by the notion that they, too, could be sued for  
> reporting the content of stock opinions arrived at by financial  
> services firms.  Many of us worry, indeed, that the propertization  
> of facts and opinions poses a serious threat to intellectual  
> freedom.  It appears that the case will go up to the Second Circuit,  
> which has previously expressed the opinion that the hot news  
> doctrine could be viable, and indeed has laid out a test for  
> applying the doctrine, but has never enshrined the doctrine in a  
> binding holding that actually held a defendant liable under the  
> doctrine.
>
> I discuss this case here:  http://pubcit.typepad.com/clpblog/2010/03/the-hot-news-doctrine-rides-again.html
>
>
> > Paul Alan Levy
> > Public Citizen Litigation Group
> > 1600 - 20th Street, N.W.
> > Washington, D.C. 20009
> > (202) 588-1000
> > http://www.citizen.org/litigation



-------------------------------------------
Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now
RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/
Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com