On 97-05-22, Dan Agin <specpress[_at_]earthlink.net> wrote:
>
> News is not protected, only the expression of news is protected. So
> what are we talking about here? Is there such an entity as a
> "misappropriation" of a fact?
Yes, there is. Facts, of course, are not protected by copyright. However, the Supreme Court recognized a cause of action for misappropriating "hot news" in the famous old case of INS v. AP (1919 or so). While much of the misappropriation cause of action has been preempted by copyright, a small portion as relates to hot news still survives as was recently made clear by the Second Circuit in the NBA v. Stats and Motorola case. See the long discussion of the issue on this list that followed the NBA decision.
Bob Penn
<thresshold[_at_]aol.com>
Received on Fri May 23 1997 - 18:27:57 GMT
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