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1: Bloomberg Beats Lawsuit for Allegedly Ripping Off “Hot News”
First off today, Eriq Gardner at The Hollywood Reporter Esquire reports that Bloomberg has emerged victorious in a lawsuit that accused it of appropriating “hot news” from a private subscription service.
The lawsuit was filed by DBW Partners, which publishes a subscription news service named Capitol Forum. They claimed that Bloomberg was obtaining their reports and, within minutes, republishing summaries and other information from them in over their own channels. Though, normally, facts and information can’t be protected by copyright a century-old ruling dealing with services snooping on telegraph lines during World War 1 found that news services did enjoy some degree of protection from those “free riding” on the back of their journalists’ work.
However, Bloomberg argued that the aforementioned “hot news” ruling was no longer good law and the judge agreed. This sets the stage for a likely appeal to the Federal Circuit.
2: Penguin Random House Defends Zhivago Novel Against Plagiarism Claim
Next up today, Alison Flood at The Guardian reports that Penguin Random House is disputing claims that one of its authors, Lara Prescott, violated the copyright of an earlier biography.
The claims were made by Anna Pasternak, who wrote the 2016 biography Lara, which is about Olga Ivinskaya, the inspiration for the character Lara in the novel Doctor Zhivago. Prescott wrote the book The Secrets We Kept, a book about how the CIA planned to use the book as a propaganda tool.
According to Pasternak, Prescott’s book copies heavily from her work, including elements that go beyond “mere inspiration a novelist may legitimately draw from a work of non-fiction.” However, Penguin argues that the claims are “without merit” and notes that the subject has been covered by many other books and works of media. Now lawsuit has been filed at this time.
3: Facebook Blocks Users from Sharing Pirate Bay Links
Finally today, Ernesto at Torrentfreak writes that Facebook has taken the step to block users from sharing links to The Pirate Bay, saying that such links are a violation of their community standards.
The Pirate Bay was originally blocked by Facebook about ten years ago. The move came after The Pirate Bay was asked to remove its Facebook Share buttons but refused to do so. Facebook responded by blocking the site altogether though, at some point after that, the ban was lifted.
However, the ban is now back in place as the site joins legions of other piracy-oriented websites blocked by Facebook. Still, the story is interesting because, even after other sites were blocked, The Pirate Bay remained available and was only blocked last week.
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