Legal Research

TCNY: Not a Matter of Settled Law

By turquhart

The New Yorker has released its entire archives in an eight-DVD set. Every article and cartoon that the magazine has published in the last 80 years--this is material covering over 4,000 issues--has been condensed into this one volume. (Here's a demo.)

According to Boston Globe columnist, Alex Beam, this significant resource presents an interesting copyright question: What gives them the right to publish this? Have New Yorker contributors such as William Maxwell and John Updike "signed over their electronic rights to the Tilley gang?" He further asks, "...does the ghost of Rachel Carson have a cause of action?"

General counsel for the magazine, Edward Klaris, explains "that The New Yorker can publish the DVDs because of a Second Circuit Court of Appeals decision in March involving National Geographic, which put out a digital version of the 'Complete National Geographic' in 1997."

Beam has discovered that the copyright question is, "as our friend John Roberts might say ... not a matter of settled law."

For now, keep in mind "the lawyer's motto: Every proposition is arguable."

Posted by Toni Urquhart

Full post as published by FSU College of Law Library Blog on October 07, 2005 (boomark / email).