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Edited by Eric Rise,
University of Delaware
   
   
News Piracy and The Hot News Doctrine: Origins in Law and Implications for the Digital Age
   

Victoria Smith Ekstrand

       
   

Ekstrand explores the legal protections for the newsman's scoop, the hot news doctrine. This U.S. Supreme Court doctrine, now more than 80 years old, protects facts for a short period after publication -- in direct opposition to U.S. copyright law, which dedicates facts to the public domain. It remains highly controversial, but extremely valuable Ð not only to news organizations who seek its protections but now to others who seek to protect facts within highly complex and profitable digital databases. Though imperfect and ill-defined, the hot news doctrine may offer the best measured approach to protections for uncopyrighted works delivered by new technologies.

       
  Victoria Smith Ekstrand is an assistant professor at Bowling Green State University, where she teaches media law and public relations. Before attending the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for her doctorate, she was Director of Corporate Communications for The Associated Press in New York City, where she handled media relations and employee and marketing communications for the news service.
       
    x, 214 pages. Index, bibliography. ISBN 1-59332-075-2.
$62. Published.