Earlier this week we reported on a ‘hot news’ ruling from March 2010, in which Barclays, Merrill Lynch, and Morgan Stanley won a victory in the federal district court, resting on the “hot news” doctrine, that stops republication of the companies’ stock recommendations by the site flyonthewall.com.
Here’s an update from the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, stating that a number of media organisations have filed a ‘friend of the court’ brief for the appeal (not in support of any party):
More than a dozen media organizations are urging a federal appeals court to recognise that “hot news” misappropriation claims are an important legal remedy to protect news organizations’ content from internet aggregators that do not conduct original reporting.
Agence France-Presse, The Associated Press, The New York Times and The Washington Post are among the organizations that joined a friend-of-the-court brief filed Tuesday with the U.S. Court of Appeals in New York City (2nd Cir.) in the case Barclays Capital v. Theflyonthewall.com.