Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Waiting at the Second Circuit Court of Appeals

It's been a couple of months since I updated. There isn't much to update, but for the sake of continuity let's reiterate that we're waiting for a ruling from a three-judge panel of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals on the objectors' original appeal of the district court approval of the Freelance settlement. Consideration of these "merits" objections had been derailed by the circuit court's spontaneous decision that it was all moot because, as a matter of procedure, a settlement could not include the claims of non-registered, as well as registered, copyrighted works. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned that decision and sent the case back to the Second Circuit.

No one knows when we will find out what's next. I heard a guess of December. That is just a guess.

The court record reflects that there were settlement discussions involving the defendants, the plaintiffs, and the objectors. Those talks did not bear fruit.

4 Comments:

Anonymous Moxie said...

Hi Irv, thanks for the update.
Does the fact that there were discussions mean
that there won't be a formal hearing scheduled?
Also, when did these discussions take place?
And is there a link and/or pdf of the court record related to this? Thanks much for any help.

5:10 PM  
Blogger Irv Muchnick said...

My understanding is that the Second Circuit's determination of whether additional oral arguments are required has nothing to do with settlement discussions. There has been briefing on the issues before the three-judge panel; the judges will decide if they need to schedule a hearing or simply issue a ruling. I'll see if I can dig up and post the court record you seek.

4:17 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Irv, Is there any update on this case? You thought something may happen in December, but I have not hear of any movement. Have you?

3:35 PM  
Blogger Irv Muchnick said...

No news, so far as I know. We're still waiting.

7:22 PM  

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