Local Newspaper Sues Other Local Paper Over 'Stolen' Obituaries

from the hot-news,-dead-news dept

Thu, Mar 19th 2009 6:33pm — Mike Masnick

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.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: hot news, obituaries, scranton
Companies: scranton times

11 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Anonymous Coward, 19 Mar 2009 @ 6:45pm

Oh - man !!!
Sounds like a couple of vultures squalking ...
This is sick.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Jesse, 19 Mar 2009 @ 6:57pm

"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?"

It's Scranton. What do you think?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Poster, 19 Mar 2009 @ 7:52pm

Re:
It's either this, or go into the paper distribution business.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 19 Mar 2009 @ 8:13pm

Sad and Depressing...
I wrote my father's obituary and paid to have it placed in two local papers. I would have been thrilled had other papers picked the obituary up at no charge. Indeed, I purchased a number of copies of the paper for family members unable to come to the funeral, just because of the obituary.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
R. Miles, 20 Mar 2009 @ 3:47am

Bright side time!
Look at it this way, if the paper loses the lawsuit (which it should), all those lawyer fees do nothing but send this rag to its grave faster.

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.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Dave, 20 Mar 2009 @ 6:15am

I dunno, I've always chosen my news source by the originality of their obits. I mean if it wasn't for a listing of who died recently, what would I need a newspaper for?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Steve L, 20 Mar 2009 @ 6:39am

I work for a small newspaper, we get about 75% of our obits from funeral homes. Even when they are placed by family members, it's not like we sit there and write it out for them, they are written and ready to go, all we have to do is type them into the system and it's done. It is a nice stream of revenue though, they are incredibly expensive (lots of lines = lots of money, the bigger the better). Hopefully this dying fad doesn't go away anytime soon.

So do your local newspaper a favor, when you die, make up a bunch of stuff you accomplished and run a 14in obit.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Yakko Warner, 20 Mar 2009 @ 8:16am

Re:
Hopefully this dying fad doesn't go away anytime soon.

I see what you did there. ;)
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 20 Mar 2009 @ 9:00am

"...funeral homes often write the obituaries themselves ... and distribute them to multiple papers..."

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.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Travis, 20 Mar 2009 @ 11:51am

*Eagerly awaiting Weird Harold's response*
[ link to this | view in thread ]
pr, 20 Mar 2009 @ 12:42pm

Hot and New?
Does anybody else find humor in associating the phrase "hot and new" with an obituary?

Victor Frankenstein, maybe. Or more likely Froederick.

"Check the Scranton Times for hot, new bodies, Igor. They always have the freshest obituaries."
[ link to this | view in thread ]