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November 6, 2008

Times-Shamrock files suit over TL use of obituaries

The suit alleges plagiarism. The Times Leader counters it has right to Web information.

An attorney for The Times Leader said there is no basis for a lawsuit that a competing publishing company filed against the newspaper.

Times-Shamrock Communications filed a lawsuit against Wilkes-Barre Publishing Co. Wednesday alleging The Times Leader plagiarized more than 50 obituaries published in its Scranton edition.

Times-Shamrock publishes the Scranton Times-Tribune and other newspapers. The company claims obituaries published Oct. 27-31 were the same obits that ran one day later in Times Leader’s Scranton edition, Ralph Kates, an attorney representing The Times Leader, confirmed on Wednesday.

The Times Leader obtained obituaries from Legacy.com, a site that hosts obituaries, memorials and guest books from hundreds of affiliated newspapers worldwide, Kates said.

According to the site’s terms and conditions agreement, anyone, including affiliated newspapers, can copy and publish any of the obituaries hosted on Legacy.com’s Web site, Kates said.

The Scranton Times-Tribune and The Times Leader are both affiliated newspapers, he said.

“I can see no basis for any claims for publishing of obituaries,” Kates said. “I don’t know any law that is violated by publishing any obituaries.”

According to a story by staff writer Erin L. Nissley published Wednesday on the Times-Tribune’s Web site, the Scranton company “is asking a judge to award damages in excess of $210,000 for lost profits, lost customers, loss of good will and damage to existing business relationships.”

J. Timothy Hinton Jr., an attorney representing the Scranton Times-Tribune in the suit, sent a letter to Times Leader Publisher Richard L. Connor claiming there was a copyright violation.

A copy of a letter faxed on Oct. 28 to Connor states the obituaries dated Oct. 27 published in the Times Leader’s Scranton edition, “contained obituaries taken straight from The Scranton Times. This action by the Times Leader constitutes copyright infringement and misappropriation of the Scranton Times’ property for your paper’s financial gain.”

Kates said it’s “unfortunate the Scranton Times is reacting to competition by initiating a lawsuit that has no merit. However, that’s normally a way a monopoly reacts when confronted with a competitor.”

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