Arizona republican., 1918-05-04


 of unfair competition. There is no claim of subterfuge or misrepresenta- tion involved, he said but lower court | intunctions gives news a property right | that not only affects the news gath | cred by The Associated Press but also | local news which the newspapers, | members of that organization collect, | and which is of no use to the organiza- tion. As a result, he said, the order | enormously enlarges" the effect upon | the property value of news so that 1t | applies not only to The Associated | Press as an organization but to its ! members alike.
 Admit Taking News
 Aren't you taking the news so you can give it to the public?" asked Jus tice Pitney.
 Mr. Untermyer replied that the news was taken and sent out by the Inter- national News Service without any ef- fort being made to deceive the public and that it was to be published for the benefit of the public.
 And Pays for it, Too 50 does the Associated Press" quickly interjected Justice Pitney "and they are spending money and time in getting it.
 We stand on the proposition that
 
 the benefit of the public and having been published, and having bought it we have a right to it." was the reply. He further argued that news matter is released upon publication and that no limit is implied or expressed in the use of news.
 In opening his argument, MT. Leh- mann replied to arguments that the Associated Press had taken advantage of the fact that the International News Service had been excluded from Eu- rope by the allied governments, be- cause of news items it circulated. Importance of News
 News, disseminated by the many journals of the country" MT. Lehman argued, lis powerful to shape public conduct. If its influence is to be Oil the side of good, rather than upon ! the side of evil, the business must be in clean hands and conducted by hon. est methods. If it comes to the pub lie from tainted sources and by tainted means, the news itself will not escape contamination"
 At length, MT. Lehman presented argument and referred to decisions to uphold the contention that publication of news does not relinquish the property right in it.
 News Not Like Mere Goods
 News is unlike any material com- modity," said he. 'In the field of general news, whether it is gathered and disseminated by a cooperative association of newspapers or by all agency conducted for pecuniary pro- | fit, it is obvious that the paper which Is permitted simply to appropriate the news without payment of any kind would have q great advantage over it's competitor who had paid for it or had shared in the labor and pains of getting it.
 Tn the case of newspapers pub | lished in the west. the conditions would be worse. Because electricity outruns the apparent movement of the sun, we can clip the news ap- bearing in the New York morning paper and send it to any paper in the Mississippi valley, or to the west of that, in ample time for publica- tion in the regular and even the first editions.
 Scissors or Enterprise
 Any person doing this would have a great advantage over The Asso- ciated Press. What the Associated Press got through the diligence and daring of it's correspondents at more than one battle front and at the ad- dtional cost of transmission by cable across the Atlantic. this man would get, sitting securely at a safe desk Ill New York by the mere use of d pair of scissors.
 May the product of the news gathering activities of the Associated Press intended so far as concerns current publication in the daily papers exclusively for its own members, be appropriated in the manner suggested by the International News Service and sold by it in the course and con- duct of its business as a news agency in competition with the Associated Press?
 That is Issue Question
 That is the question presented by sel for the International News Ser vice boldly in the affirmative.
 News, they say, is an account of facts and events, and in facts and events no one can have any exclusive right This is conceded. But the facts and events themselves are not news. The report of them is news. Before the fact can be reported it must be ascertained. Somebody must be where he can get knowledge of it, and he must be a person of intelli- gence and experience, competent to determine whether what has happened is of interest and importance enough to constitute news and he must pro- vide for prompt transmission or con- veyance of the information he has gotten to the place where it will be put in course of distribution for pub iication as part of the dave news.
 Secured at Great Cost
 "The Associated Press does not create the facts or produce the events of which it endeavors to give first information to it's members, but it does create, it does produce the news budget which gives such information, and to create, to produce this news budget requires human effort of every kind from the hardest toll to the highest integrity, attended sometimes by the gravest perils. It requires also the expenditure of money to second and sustain the human effort, The elements of labor, skill and capital thus essential to the production of a news report are themselves elements of value and are properly, entitled to protection as such. Why is not that true of the product itself. It is through out the civilized world the subject of barter and sale. And because a news report, as news report has value and pecuniary value, the International News Service takes that of the Asso- ciated Press and sells it to it's own clients for dollars and cents in hand paid.
 Not Literature but Costly
 They say that a mere budget of news is not literature and so is not the subject of copyright, and even if it were we have not compiled with the copyright law and so are not entitled to the protection it affords. Funda- mental principles of justice announced in copyright cases may have applca-