RE: copyright of briefs

Dennis Austin wrote:
>
> ... Bancroft-Whitney ... decided to back out of a contract
> ... to put briefs filed by attorneys up on CD-ROM, stating that there
> was a copyright problem. It seems that the company believes that the
> individual lawyers who write the briefs have copyrights in them.
> This seems strange since the US Supreme Court briefs are routinely
> put online and available in microformats. Do briefs fall into the
> materials that are protected by copyright?

Any work of original authorship is protected by copyright unless it consists entirely of uncopyrightable matter. The fact that someone's work has become part of a public record does not invalidate the author's copyright and right to exercise control over subsequent uses. See, e.g., Marvin Worth Prods. v. Superior Films Corp., 319 F. Supp. 1269 (SDNY 1970) and Douglas Intl Corp. v. Baker, 335 F. Supp. 282 (SDNY 1971) [Lenny Bruce's monologues could not be subsequently used in films or plays about him, merely because they had become part of public court records].

Bob Cumbow
<cumbr[_at_]perkinscoie.com> Received on Mon Oct 14 1996 - 16:46:17 GMT