UPDATE: Hartford Courant Settles 'Hot News' Copyright Suit with Journal-Inquirer

Image via WikipediaSettlement terms were not disclosed, but the Tribune Co.-owned Hartford Courant earlier this month quietly ended its defense of a copyright infringement/"hot news" suit brought against it by the Manchester Journal-Inquirer (see "TUOL" post 12/4/09), PaidContent.org reported.

The Journal Inquirer sued for $1.65 million, claiming that the Courant plagiarized its stories about education and local water issues, posting some on the Courant Web site without attribution. The Courant apologized to its readers in September 2009 (see "TUOL" post 9/4/09) for its ersatz news aggregating practices.

With the parties' out-of-court resolution, journalism junkies are deprived of seeing the Journal Inquirer's "stealing news" accusation played out in open court. The Courant had contended that its news aggregating came under the fair use exception to the plaintiff's copyright infringement count, and denied the re-written stories at issue constituted "hot news." The so-called hot news doctrine, which amounts to a property right in information, dates back to an Associated Press case decided by the Supreme Court in 1913, but enjoyed a revival of sorts last year with a New York case involving a financial services Website.

Suit Claims Hartford Courant News Copy Copied News of Journal Inquirer

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The Manchester (Conn.) Journal Inquirer is seeking up to $1.65 million from The Hartford Courant for what it alleges are 11 distinct instances in which the Courant plagiarized stories from the rival daily.

The suit in Hartford County Superior Court (Journal Publishing Co., Inc. v. The Hartford Courant Co.) includes counts alleging copyright infringment, conversion, unjust enrichment and violation of the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act based on stories that appeared in the Courant from Aug. 4 to Sept. 11 this year. The Courant's Publisher, Richard Graziano, published a letter of apology in the Courant on Sept. 4 acknowledging that the paper had plagiarized stories from competitors, adding that was "not our intent."

The Journal Inquirer seeks damages of $150,000 for each of the 11 purported acts of copyright infringement. The complaint intimates that staff reductions at the Courant may be partly to blame for the alleged infraction.

Not au courant, but oh Courant!