Local Newspaper Sues Other Local Paper Over 'Stolen' Obituaries
from the hot-news,-dead-news dept
What is it with newspapers suing each other these days, rather than actually focusing on adding value? Eric Goldman alerts us to the news that the Scranton Times sued the competing Wilkes-Barre newspaper over "copied" obituaries. There are numerous problems with the lawsuit, not the least of which is that funeral homes often write the obituaries themselves (meaning the newspaper might not have any copyright claim to them in the first place) and distribute them to multiple papers (meaning they probably weren't even copied directly, but came from the same third party source). Luckily, the court has thrown out most (though not all) of the charges, including another attempt to revive the troubling "hot new" concept. It's good to see the court shoot that particular argument down quickly. In the meantime, Scranton Times: seriously? Is there really nothing better to be doing with your time and money than suing another paper for having the same obituaries?Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: hot news, obituaries, scranton
Companies: scranton times
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Sounds like a couple of vultures squalking ...
This is sick.
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It's Scranton. What do you think?
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Re:
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Sad and Depressing...
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Bright side time!
So it sounds like a positive to me, not a negative.
Not my problem if they're squandering cash this way, but subscribers should be on the phone today to cancel future deliveries.
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So do your local newspaper a favor, when you die, make up a bunch of stuff you accomplished and run a 14in obit.
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Re:
I see what you did there. ;)
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Well your only a blogger so no need to try to find who actually wrote the obit's in question or whether that had anything to do with the bit that were thrown out - brilliant reporting Mike, you'll replace a news paper yet.
Watch out Goldman doesn't sue you for copying his blog almost word for word.
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Hot and New?
Victor Frankenstein, maybe. Or more likely Froederick.
"Check the Scranton Times for hot, new bodies, Igor. They always have the freshest obituaries."
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