Nothing Older Than Yesterday's Obituaries
Prof Goldman: Newspaper Obituaries Aren't Hot News:
The Scranton Times is suing the Wilkes-Barre newspaper for republishing obituary notices in its Scranton edition that were initially published in the Scranton Times. But the Scranton Times has a problem--funeral homes typically write and submit the obituary notices, so the Scranton Times has no copyright interest in the notices. . .
The most interesting discussion relates to the hot news misappropriation doctrine . . . Here, the court says that the obituary notices fail to qualify as hot news, and therefore the misappropriation claim is preempted by copyright law.