Slightly over a year ago I wrote about the lawsuit filed on behalf of Stanford scholar Carol Schloss against the estate of James Joyce seeking assurances that Schloss could make fair use of Joyce's unpublished works. I haven't been good about updating this important case, so here is a quick summary.
In March of this year Schloss and the Center for Internet and Society (which is representing her) reached a settlement with the Joyce estate permitting Schloss to post and publish portions of the unpublished Joyce letters at issue in the lawsuit. While wonderful news for Schloss, some of us were disappointed by the settlement because it set no precedent for other scholars in this situation.
We should not have worried. In a surprise move, Schloss then filed a motion that requested that, as the prevailing party in the settlement, her attorney's fees be paid by the Joyce estate. At the end of May the court granted this request. We don't yet know how much will be awarded, and it will probably be less than the $1.8 million in attorney's fees that Tom Forsythe got in the "Food Chain Barbie" case. Nevertheless, this decision should give pause to any copyright owner who over-aggressively seeks to exert rights that he or she may not have.
There is a long and thoughtful article on this decision, "Portrait of the old man as a copyright miser," in the LA Times. Be sure to see Schloss's comments on the article as well.
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