Legal News

Calabresi on ?Catcher? Sequel: A ?Rather Dismal Piece of Work?

By Nathan Koppel

An author who has been trying to ride J.D. Salinger's coattails got an airing Thursday in the Second Circuit.

In July, Manhattan federal judge Deborah Batts ruled that author Fredrick Colting's "The Catcher in the Rye"-inspired book infringed on Salinger's copyright. The novel did not fit into the fair use exception in copyright law, she ruled, because the book did not constitute a critical parody that "transformed" the original. (Click here and here for previous LB coverage.)

But a three-judge panel of the Second Circuit expressed doubt about whether Judge Batts heard enough evidence before blocking U.S. publication of "60 Years After: Coming Through the Rye." Here's an AP account of the hearing.

Our favorite part of the hearing: when judge Guido Calabresi turned all Michiko Kakutani on Colting, an American living in Sweden under the pseudonym "J.D. California." The eminent Second Circuit judge called Colting's book a "rather dismal piece of work." Ouch.

That said, Calabresi, the AP reports, questioned Salinger's lawyer about whether the lower court should hear more evidence given that the case implicated Colting's First Amendment rights.

"It is clear on its face that this work is not transformative," said Marcia Beth Paul, counsel to Salinger.

But Colting's lawyer countered that "60 Years After" was "highly transformative with enormous amounts of commentary and criticism."

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on September 04, 2009 (boomark / email).