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.