Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Important Development From the Supreme Court

The U.S. Supreme Court has asked the objectors to file a response to the defendants' petition for certiorari. The deadline for our brief is October 20. As a result, the Court's conference to consider whether to accept the appeal has been set for November 29, rather than September 29.

To review: Both the plaintiffs and the defendants petitioned the High Court to overturn the ruling by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals (which threw out the copyright class action settlement on the grounds that the federal courts have no jurisdiction over settlements including unregistered works). The objectors agree with the settlement parties on this point: unregistereds should have standing in the courts for settlement purposes.

In August we had informed the Supreme Court that we were waiving our right to respond to the parties' petitions. We never said we agreed with what the defendants and the plaintiffs had said to the court, chapter and verse; we just chose not to file a response.

But now the justices, in their wisdom, have decided that they do want to hear from us.