According to the Times-Tribune, a newspaper in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the newspaper owns the copyrights on all obituaries that they write. I'm no lawyer, but I think that newspaper has a strong case.
It seems that the Times-Tribune sued the Wilkes-Barre Publishing Co. and The Times Leader on Wednesday, claiming the Wilkes-Barre paper plagiarized more than 50 obituaries written and published in The Times-Tribune starting in late October. The suit, filed in Lackawanna County Court, lists seven claims, including misappropriation, unfair competition, fraud, breach of contract and unjust enrichment.
The Times-Tribune is asking a judge to award damages in excess of $210,000 for lost profits, lost customers, loss of good will and damage to existing business relationships. The suit also asks that The Times Leader be barred from copying Times-Tribune obituaries or any other content from its newspapers or Web site.
You can read more about this interesting lawsuit at http://tinyurl.com/eogn2.
My thanks to Hank Loftus for letting me know about this lawsuit.
