Friday, March 23, 2012

International News Service v. Associated Press case brief

International News Service v. Associated Press
248 U.S. 215, 39 S. Ct. 68, 63 L. Ed. 211, 1918 U.S. 



FACTS
-Plaintiff (AP) sued to enjoin Defendant (International New Service) from publishing, as its own news, stories obtained from early editions of P's publications.

RULES

-Publication for profit of news that is obtained from other news-gathering enterprises is a misappropriation of a property right.

ANALYSIS

-In determining whether or not a news collecting agency has property rights in the news, one must consider whether an agency has a property right in the news that it collected versus other collecting agencies (rather than against the public).
-The business of making this news known to the world, when the parties to the case are competitors in the field, creates a quasi property interest in the news between them.  It is unfair competition when one of the parties interferes with the normal operation of another's legitimate business right at the point where profit is to be reaped, in order to divert a material portion of the profit from those who have earned to those who have not earned it.


POLICY
1.  News as a quasi property right.  News is valuable.  Consider first possessor and labor.

2.  Instrumentalist argument states that this encourages news gathering.
3.  Dissent argues formalism despite the seemingly unfair result.  Must leave this to the legislature to solve if one does not like the result.

Relativity of Title

-Property rights may differ in respect to a particular object depending on who the dispute is with. 
-Property rights are more about relations with people as opposed to between people and things.

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