Yankees Claiming Copyright To Block Memoir Involving 60 Year Old Letters From A Young George Steinbrenner
from the speech-and-free-speech dept
One of the claims that people make when we talk about how copyright interferes with free speech is the claim that "copying isn't free speech." Whether or not that's actually true is a debate we'll save for another day, but an even bigger concern is how often copyright is used not to block copying, but new forms of speech that build off of those other works. A new example comes from the NY Yankees (a team I'm a fan of, I should note), whose famed owner George Steinbrenner, passed away this year. Apparently, back when he was a teenager, he had a friendly (bordering on romantic) relationship with a young girl in his town, Mary Jane Schriner, and he wrote her letters, which she's kept until this day. When Steinbrenner died, Schriner took the letters out of her dresser and shared them with her family, which led to a nice NY Times piece about her recollections of her time with the young Steinbrenner, along with an image of one of the letters:Anyway, a writer contacted Schriner, and suggested perhaps putting together a memoir about her time with the young George Steinbrenner, which would use the letters, and weave them into a more complete narrative. The Schriner family, politely asked the Yankees their feelings on the matter, and apparently received a sternly worded letter, saying that publishing the letters:
"will cause untold embarrassment and damages to the Steinbrenner family and the Steinbrenner's business interests."Further comments on the matter in the article, suggest that the Yankees made it clear that the family still owns the copyright on the letters (correct) and that this could be the method through which they would block any publication. It sounds as if the family has given up on the plans to do the book, which really is a shame, but it certainly seems like there would be a pretty strong fair use claim here as well. Beyond the questions about how reminiscence of a friendship from 60 years ago might "damage the family business interests," it's worth pointing out that copyright is not supposed to be used to block "damaging the family business interests." Being embarrassed by what's in a document is not something that takes away fair use rights.
The article quotes an NYU law professor, who correctly points out that the copyright on the document and physical ownership are different, but I'm not sure it's accurate to state, absolutely that "she cannot publish the letters." I think a strong case could be made for fair use in publishing a memoir that includes those letters. It's not as if the Steinbrenner family has some sort of commercial interest in the letters. Instead, however, we get yet another case where just the threat of a copyright claim -- even one that doesn't seem to have much legal basis -- is holding back speech.
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Filed Under: copyright, george steinbrenner, mary jane schriner, memoirs, yankees
Reader Comments
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What other abuses are there.
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Ugh. And I used to like you....
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The Yankees don't have a David Wright. Hah!
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Go Sox! Wearing my Red Sox hat at work today. Rooting for the Rangers tonight :) (and phillies)
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gray area
I'm not a lawyer, but I would think that when you are given a letter, especially one written for you, the ability to reproduce it would be implied.
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Aren't the letters in the public domain? According to TFA, they were written in 1949, they obviously bear no copyright mark, and any copyrights were not in any way renewed in the 1970s.
Of course that applies for published works, and I don't really know about unpublished works.
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Of course that applies for published works, and I don't really know about unpublished works.
Yes, I'm assuming that these would be considered unpublished works, which would would be life of the author plus 70 years. Considering he just died... we've got 70 years.
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Seems like an abuse of the law to do that.
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Automatic copyright started when?
If I'm right (and please correct me if not), then it's highly unlikely that Steinbrenner registered for a copyright on letters he wrote, and they should be in the public domain.
No one else has said this, so I must be wrong somehow, please let me know where.
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Scholarship Loses
The proposed memoir would be a work of scholarship about Steinbrenner. Works of scholarship are being continually blocked by crucial documents not being in the public domain. Then primary sources like Ms Schriner die off, thereby preventing the scholarly work from ever existing. This damages US culture. Promoting the progress -- not so much.
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But.... HUH???
What's next? Does this mean next time I buy a sandwich that Pret a Manger is going to tell me where I'm allowed to eat it? The time frame I have to eat it in before ownership reverts to them?
Does this mean I can track down my old friend from school when I was 5 and claim a portion of the £100,000 he gets for selling the toy car I gave him that turns out to be rare and valuable in today's market?
SOMEONE explain the sense behind it please? There must have been SOME logic somewhere surely?
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Cradle Robber
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Selling the letters on E-Bay
Current copyright laws clearly show a perfect example of how the U.S. Government is now nothing more than a paid enforcer and a shill for the corporations, and no longer a servant of the public at large.
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Re: Yankees claiming copyright ...
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This is an office ammo topic
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Steinbrunner letters
It appears to me that Steinbrenner GAVE the letters to the lady; if so, she owns them and has the copyright to them. I realize if he had given her a COPY of a letter, meaning to keep ownership of the original, that would be a "whole 'nuther thing", but as I understand it, he gave the ORIGINALS to her, intending for her to keep them as the new owner.
If he had SOLD them to her, do you think that would be different? I don't.
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See, now that makes a LOT more sense to me. How is it that the judgement seems more often to come down on the side of the money than common sense?
/naivety
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Steinbrenner letters
Whether or not they could win the lawsuit is not the point. They would have spent whatever is neccessary to scare away the publisher, literary agent and co-author.
Had they sent her a friendly letter, thanking her for her original story in the Times on July 15th, she would have respected their decision and been happy that she could show what a nice person George was back in the day. Instead they bascially threatened her. What a lack of class.
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