On 4/1/98, Bruce Bertram <bmb[_at_]bmb.com> wrote:
>
> I downloaded a copy of the opinion issued by Judge Wright today. I
> downloaded the text file from the Washington Post's web site. The Post
> claims a copyright in the text. They also claim a copyright in an image
> of the one page order dismissing the case.
>
> Can they do that?
I'm not sure what you mean by "claim a copyright." If you mean the Post stuck a copyright notice on the page(s) you looked at, my experience is that most, if not all, online publishers insert copyright notices on all their news content pages, whether the material is copyrightable or not. The Post will assert a copyright in anything it possibly can. It will assert a copyright in the publication as a whole (a collection) and any individual piece.
As to your question, the text of Judge Wright's opinion was authored by Judge Wright. As a federal employee there can be no copyright ownership of the opinion by Wright or by the federal government. See sections 101 and 105 of the Copyright Act. If the author of the text can't own any copyright in it, then there is no copyright to transfer to anyone else, including the Post.
As to the image of the order, I haven't seen the version on the Post web page, but if it looks like the Post copied the image and printed it, the analysis is the same. If they composed the image themselves, they would have to find something original in that image (dancing naked women?) to make it copyrightable. The text of the Order is again not copyrightable.
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