Hot News in the Age of Big Data: A Legal History of the Hot News Doctrine and Implications for the Digital Age
September 2015
ISBN-13: 978-1-59332-500-8 / Paperback
Dimensions: 5.5 x 8.5 / x, 214 pages
"Ekstrand provides a robust defense of the [Hot News] doctrine’s continued usefulness in an era defined by the prevalence of instantaneous information.… Delving extensively into the record of International News Service v. Associated Press, the case that birthed the doctrine, Ekstrand makes a persuasive argument that the decision is best understood as a product of its time: a response to then-prevailing ‘historical, technological and social forces.’… Ekstrand’s observations are timely: regulators continue to grapple with the proper degree of protection for creators of time-sensitive information. Hers is a valuable contribution to the debate.” -- Harvard Law Review
The way news and information is gathered, reported, and digested has forever changed, and the increasing emphasis on speed is altering how society receives and acts on the information it processes. This book examines the origin, application, and development of the legal doctrine of “hot news,” which in U.S. law protects the facts of timely news and information for a limited period. It examines the doctrine’s nearly 100-year history and its continued ability to preserve the economic value of news and information for its creators. Though declared dead by some, the doctrine is very much alive as common law and has significant implications for the new age of big data.