Saturday, October 27, 2012

Tragic irony or poetic justice?

Faulkner Literary Rights, LLC, a worthy (?) successor to Righthaven in the annals of copyright (and trademark) trolls, has sued the Washington Post for running an ad by Northrop Grumman (also sued).  Attached to the complaint: the full ad, and the full text of the Harper's article from which the ad's 14-word quote is taken, thus making it available to anyone who cares to read the whole thing.  The case is Faulkner Literary Rights, LLC v. Washington Post, 3:12-cv-00732-HTW-LRA (S.D. Miss. filed Oct. 26, 2012).  I've seen a court do this, Siegel v. Warner Bros. Entm't Inc., 658 F. Supp. 2d 1036 (C.D. Cal. 2009) (attaching entire Action Comics #1, in color, to opinion determining ownership of copyright in Action Comics #1), and I'm used to seeing poor-quality scans of a plaintiff's work as exhibits, but that's for images; I can't remember seeing someone do this with a text, where the quality of the scan doesn't really limit its usability.  I can only wonder whether plaintiff will seek to add claims against defendants for filing briefs in their own defense that include a recitation of the facts; after all, their ultimate motives in fighting the case will be to save money!

PS: I trust Warner won't sue me for the title quote.

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