Free for a Fee

The cause of action for misappropriation of reports of breaking news, i.e., “hot news” misappropriation, has been around for going on a century, since the U.S. Supreme Court opinion in International News Service v. Associated Press, 248 U.S. 215 (1918). In that landmark case the Court recognized a “quasi property” right in such reports on the part of a news-gathering organization under federal common law.

Survival of the hot news misappropriation claim, and its applicability to online news aggregators, has been the subject of much discussion and debate as news aggregation sites have become ubiquitous on the Internet, on sites ranging from Google News to thousands of more modest offerings.

more

The content in this post was found at http://newmedialaw.proskauer.com/2009/02/articles/online-content/want-some-hot-news-ap-hot-news-case-against-online-news-aggregator-survives-motion-to-dismiss/ and was not authored by the moderators of freeforafee.com. Clicking the title link will take you to the source of the post.