L.A. Times v. Free Republic
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''Los Angeles Times v. Free Republic'', 56 U.S.P.Q.2d 1862 (C.D. Cal. 2000), is a United States district court copyright law case. Several newspapers sued the Internet forum Free Republic for allowing its users to repost the full text of copyrighted newspaper articles, asserting that this constituted copyright infringement. Free Republic claimed that they were not
liable In law, liable means "responsible or answerable in law; legally obligated". Legal liability concerns both civil law and criminal law and can arise from various areas of law, such as contracts, torts, taxes, or fines given by government agencie ...
under the doctrine of fair use and the First Amendment guarantee of
freedom of speech Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recogni ...
. The
federal courts Federal court may refer to: United States * Federal judiciary of the United States ** United States district court, a particular federal court Elsewhere * Federal Court of Australia * Federal courts of Brazil * Federal Court (Canada) * Federal co ...
ruled in favor of the newspapers.


Background

Free Republic, an Internet forum for Republican and conservative
activist Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...
s, was founded in 1996 by Jim Robinson of Fresno, California, and gained popularity during the impeachment of Bill Clinton. During the first few years of its existence, Free Republic's members made a practice of posting and archiving the full text of copyrighted news articles on its website, despite the objection of the copyright holders. The website homepage stated:


District court proceedings

In December 1997, the '' Los Angeles Times'', '' The Washington Post'', and other newspapers sent
cease-and-desist letters A cease and desist letter is a document sent to an individual or business to stop alleged illegal activity. The phrase "cease and desist" is a legal doublet, made up of two near-synonyms. The letter may warn that, if the recipient does not dis ...
by certified mail to Free Republic and to Robinson demanding that they stop republishing and archiving full-text articles of copyrighted materials. Robinson defiantly refused, saying that before he would agree to excerpt and link—that is, to post only excerpts of articles and use
hyperlink In computing, a hyperlink, or simply a link, is a digital reference to data that the user can follow or be guided by clicking or tapping. A hyperlink points to a whole document or to a specific element within a document. Hypertext is text wit ...
s to the original source for the full text—the newspapers would have to "rip the
keyboard Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...
from his cold dead fingers" (a reference to the famous statement, " I'll give you my gun when you take it from my cold, dead hands"). On September 28, 1998, the ''Los Angeles Times'', The Washington Post Company, and the
Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive was an online subsidiary of Graham Holdings Company, The Washington Post Company, headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, United States. WPNI operated washingtonpost.com, the website of the Washington Post, as well ...
(the wholly owned subsidiary of The Washington Post Company that produces the online version of ''The Washington Post'',
washingtonpost.com ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nat ...
) filed suit in the United States District Court for the Central District of California against Robinson, Free Republic, and Electronic Orchard alleging copyright infringement. (Electronic Orchard was the name of a "business of unknown legal form" that conducted website development and "regularly and extensively advertised" its services on Free Republic and was owned and controlled by Robinson as Free Republic was). Ten more defendants only known by the usernames were sued as Does 1 through 10. The complaint stated that Free Republic (the "Infringing Website") had contained "dozens if not hundreds of Plaintiffs' copyrighted articles," and named ten examples (one each for Does 1 through 10). The ensuing court battle over the next four years revolved around issues of copyright and fair use. Robinson characterized it as "a life and death struggle with elements of the socialist
propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...
machine, namely, the ''Los Angeles Times'' and ''The Washington Post''." The newspapers were represented by Rex S. Heinke, originally of the law firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. During the litigation he moved first to the firm of Greines, Martin, Stein & Richland, LLP, of Beverly Hills, then to the Los Angeles firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld. Free Republic were represented by the now-
disbarred Disbarment, also known as striking off, is the removal of a lawyer from a bar association or the practice of law, thus revoking their law license or admission to practice law. Disbarment is usually a punishment for unethical or criminal conduct ...
attorney Brian Langford Buckley and the Newport Beach-based David Flyer. Free Republic responded to the suit by raising an
affirmative defense An affirmative defense to a civil lawsuit or criminal charge is a fact or set of facts other than those alleged by the plaintiff or prosecutor which, if proven by the defendant, defeats or mitigates the legal consequences of the defendant's o ...
of fair use. The plaintiffs moved for partial summary adjudication on defendants' fair use defense on October 4, 1999, and cross-filed for summary judgment citing a First Amendment defense on October 19 under seal. Judge Margaret M. Morrow issued a preliminary ruling on November 8, 1999, rejecting the "fair use" argument. On April 4, 2000, Morrow issued an order granting partial summary judgment to the plaintiffs and denying the defendant's motion for summary judgment. In this opinion, Morrow set out the federal standard for fair use of copyrighted materials, which has been the basis of authority in all subsequent litigation. Plaintiff filed for summary judgment on the remaining issues of permanent
injunction An injunction is a legal and equitable remedy in the form of a special court order that compels a party to do or refrain from specific acts. ("The court of appeals ... has exclusive jurisdiction to enjoin, set aside, suspend (in whole or in pa ...
and damages on June 5, 2000. The defendants failed to file any opposition to the plaintiff's second motion for summary judgment and claiming they had not been served, but that the point did not matter as they "did not oppose the relief being requested." The defendants waived their remaining defenses and stipulated to the entry of final judgment in district court with a stay on execution, preserving their right to appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit only on fair use and First Amendment grounds. The stipulation that defendants agreed to on November 16, 2000, gave plaintiffs a permanent injunction against posting full-text versions of copyrighted materials, ordered archived articles be removed, and awarded the plaintiffs $1 million in damages, but no attorney's fees. Robinson claimed to be judgment-proof, saying "Practically speaking, we were already bankrupt long before any of this got started. We just did not have, and still do not have any assets to protect..."


Appeal

Brian Langford Buckley filed the defendant's appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on December 15, 2001. The appellant's opening brief was filed April 20, the appellee's brief was filed May 31, and the appellant's reply was filed June 25. On September 1, the Defendant's attorney was declared inactive by the
State Bar of California The State Bar of California is California's official attorney licensing agency. It is responsible for managing the admission of lawyers to the practice of law, investigating complaints of professional misconduct, prescribing appropriate disciplin ...
due to noncompliance with Minimum Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) requirements. He was therefore declared not eligible to practice law. Buckley and Robinson later clashed publicly regarding related legal matters, and Buckley was banned from Free Republic. On October 5, the defendants notified the court of appeals of their substitution of counsel. The parties then began negotiating a
settlement Settlement may refer to: *Human settlement, a community where people live *Settlement (structural), the distortion or disruption of parts of a building *Closing (real estate), the final step in executing a real estate transaction *Settlement (fina ...
. The parties ultimately agreed that in return for Defendants dropping their appeal and agreeing to both endorse the Stipulation for Entry of Amended Final Judgment containing the Permanent Injunction Order and link to it on the Free Republic homepage, the defendants would only be
jointly and severally liable Where two or more persons are liable in respect of the same liability, in most common law legal systems they may either be: * jointly liable, or * severally liable, or * jointly and severally liable. Joint liability If parties have joint liabili ...
to the newspapers for $5,000 each, which was not described as damages or legal fees, and the Court found that plaintiffs had "no 'adequate legal remedy' other than a permanent injunction to protect them against further acts of copyright infringements by the three named defendants." Robinson announced the decision to drop the appeal and begin excerpting and linking articles on June 19, 2002, saying "Well, my fingers are not cold and dead and my keyboard has not been ripped away." Thousands of threads were subsequently deleted from the archives as ''Times'' and ''Post'' articles were purged. Free Republic has complied with other post-litigation requests from other copyright owners such as '' USA Today'' to excerpt and link.


Footnotes


External links


Original complaint
{{DEFAULTSORT:Los Angeles Times V. Free Republic 2000 in United States case law United States District Court for the Central District of California cases United States copyright case law Fair use case law Los Angeles Times