Constitutional Law

Court Wades into Copyright Dispute

Among the Supreme Court's orders this morning is one the grant of certiorari in a copyright case bearing on the compensation that freelance writers are due for republication of their works. In Reed Elsevier v. Muchnick, the high court has whittled the question presented into whether federal law restricts 'the subject matter jurisdiction of the federal courts over copyright infringement actions.'

The case was born out of an $18 million class action settlement between freelancers and publishers in 2005. The settlement, which took four years of litigation to reach, was intended to resolve the issue of whether contracts between the parties permitted republication of freelancers' works online. The settlement was approved by a federal judge before being thrown out by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on the grounds that federal courts lack jurisdiction over claims of unregistered copyrights being infringed. The publishers are now asking the Supreme Court to recognized the district court's jurisdiction and reinstate the settlement.

The court had 're-listed' the case seven times for discussion at private conferences, says one observer following the case. Oral argument will be heard this autumn.

Full post as published by ACS Blog on March 02, 2009 (boomark / email).