Sunday, September 11, 2011

Copyright Protection Found in Telephone Recording

Stewart Baker at the Volokh Conspiracy has an interesting posting on a recent ruling by a Federal Judge in New York on the copyrightability of a phone recording.  Swatch watches had an analyst call wherein Swatch had recorded the call and apparently provided a clear notice to that effect and instructing no one else to do so. Nevertheless, a Bloomberg reporter went ahead and recorded the call and then tried to disseminate its contents. As Baker points out, one would have thought this would give rise to a privacy/cyber breach claim. Instead, Swatch, sued for copyright infringement. Bloomberg filed a motion to dismiss which the Court denied (a link to the Judge's order is imbedded within the attached link below). Some strange and undesirable outcomes could arise out of this ruling: Imagine, as Baker states, a politician on a campaign trail who records all of his/her events and then takes the position that all the content therein is subject to copyright protection. Hopefully, this is where fair use would clearly prevail, but why even have to go there in the first place?

http://volokh.com/2011/09/11/better-swatch-what-you-say/

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