copyright of pleadings

From: Cem Kaner <cemkaner[_at_]netcom.com>
Date: Sat, 13 Apr 1996 10:28:17 -0700

I've been reading this discussion of copyright of briefs with some dismay. Let me raise a related question -- what about the pleadings?

There are times that it will be valuable to include a complaint and an answer in a book (I am planning to do so in a book on consumer protection for software purchasers.) The parties in almost all of these cases settle, so there is no record of the case outside of the complaints. The settlement agreement often provides that the attorneys and the clients won't discuss the case, so there is no chance that the attorneys will grant me publication rights. In fact, in many cases the attorneys don't even acknowledge inquiry letters about such cases.

The pleadings in these cases are still public documents, but if they are not (I have always been taught and believed that they are) publicly reprintable then there is no way that anyone in the public will ever see them because the authors of the pleadings cannot and will not grant rights to reprint them.

Are pleadings in the public domain or not?

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CEM KANER JD, PhD. Attorney / ASQC-Certified Quality Engineer read Kaner, Falk & Nguyen, TESTING COMPUTER SOFTWARE (2d Ed. VNR) 1060 Highland Court #4, Santa Clara 95050 408-244-7000

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Received on Sat Apr 13 1996 - 17:35:05 GMT