The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-12-24
Supreme Court Sustains
 Injunction Against /. ". s.

l day. It IS not to be supposed that the | framers of the constitution. when they 1 empowered Congress to promote the
 progress of science. and useful arts, l by securing for limited times to au- 1 thors and inventors the exclusive
 right to their respective writings and l discoveries,' (Const. art. 1, sec. s, par. S) intended to confer upon one which
 might happen to be the first to re- port historic event the exclusive
 right for any period to spread the l knowledge of it.
 UNFAIR COMPETITION 1 We need spend no time, however,
 uopn the general question of property in news matter in common law, or the ap- plicat1on of the copyright act since it l seems to us the case must turn upon | the question: of unfair competition in 1 business. And, in our opinion, this does
 rot depend upon any general right of property analogous to the common law right of the property of an unpublished
 work to prevent it's publication without | his consent; nor Is it foreclosed by show l ing that the benefits of the copyright act
 have been waived
 We are dealing here not with restrc-
 tions upon publication, but with the very | facilities and processes of publication. | The peculiar value of news is in the | spreading of it while it is fresh; it is | | est in the news as news, cannot be
 maintained by keeping 1t secret. Besides,
 except for matters improperly disclosed, | or published in breach of trust or con 1 fidence, or in violation of law, none of which is involved in this branch of the case, the news of current events may | be regarded as common property. What we are concerned with is the business of making it known to the world, in which both parties to the present suit are en- | gagged. That business consists in main talnfng prompt, sure, steady and ro- , liable service designed to place the daily events of the world at the breakfast table of the millions at price that, while of trifling moment to each reader, IS sufficient in the aggregate to afford compensation for the cost of gathering and distributing it, with the added profit so necessary as an incentive to effective action in the commercial world The service thus performed for newspaper readers is not only innocent but ex- tremely useful in itself, and indubitably constitutes a legitimate business. The parties are competitors in this field; and, on fundamental principles appIi- cable here as elsewhere, when the rights
 or privileges of the one are liable to con fllct with those of the other, each party IS under a duty so to conduct it's own business as not to unnecessarily or un- fairly injure that of the other Hitch man Coal and Coke company vs. Mitch- ell, 245 U. S.. 229 254
 NEW STOCK IN TRADE
 Obviously, the question of what Is un
 fair competition in business must be determined with particular reference to
 the character and circumstances of the
 business. The question here is not so much the rights of either party as against the pl1bIir hI1f thayr r;c themselves See Morrison vs Moat. g
 Hare 241, 25S. And although we may and do assume that neither party has any remaining property interest as against the public in uncopyrighted news
 matter after the moment of it's first
 publication, 1t by no means follows that
 there is no remaining property interest in it as between themselves. For, to both of them alike, news matter, how
 ever little susceptible of ownership or dominion In the absolute sense, is stock In trade, to be gathered at the cost of enterprise, organization, skill, labor and
 money, to be distributed and sold te those who will pay money for It. as for
 other merchandise. Regarding the news, therefore, as but the material out of which both parties are seeking to make profits at the same time and in the
 same field, we hardly can fail to recog. nize that for this purpose, and as be. tween them, 1t must be regarded as quasi
 property, irrespective of. the rights of either as against the public.
 "In order to sustain the Jurisdiction Of equity over the controversy, we need not affirm any general and absolute property in the news as such The rule that court of equity concerns itself
 only in the proportion of property rights treats any civil right of a pecuniary
 nature as a property right Gin re. Sawyer 124 II. S., 200, 210; in re. Debs, 15S U. S., 564, 593), and the right to acquire prop erty by honest labor or the conduct of a lawful business is as much entitled
 to protection as the right to guard prop
 erty already acquired. TruaS vs. Rich, l 239 U. S., 8. 37-3s Brennan vs United Hatters, 73 N. J. Law, 729; Barr vs Es-
 sex. Trades Council, 53 N. j., Eq. 101. It is this right that furnishes the basis of
 the jurisdiction in the ordinary sense of unfair competition.
 QUESTION OFTEN RAISED "The question, whether one who has gathered general information or news at
 pains and expense for the purpose of sub- sequent publication through the press has such an interest in it's publication as may be protected from interference, has been | raised many times, although never, per haps, in the precise form In which 1t is now presented.
 Other cases are cited, but none that we deem it necessary to mention.
 l Not only do the acquisition and trans l mission of news require elaborate organi- zation and large expenditure of money,
 skill and effort; not only has it an ex- | change value to the gatherer, depend-
 ent chiefly upon it's novelty and fresh
 ness, the regularity of the service, it's
 reputed reliability and thoroughness, and | Its adaptablity to the public needs; but !, also, as is evident, the news has an ex-
 change value to one who can misappro- | priate it.
 ''The peculiar features of the case arise l from the fact that, while novelty and
 freshness form so important an element | in the success of the business, the very
 processes of distribution and publica-
 tion necessarily occupy good deal of l time. Complainants service, as well as defendants, is daily service to daily
 newspapers: most of the foreign news
 reaches this country at the Atlantic sea- 1 board, principally at the city of New
 York, and because of this, and of time l differentials due to the earths rotation, | the distribution of news matter through
 out the country is principally from east | to west, and, since in speed the tele-
 graph and telephone easily outstrip the
 rotation of the earth, it is simple mat l ter for defendant to take complainant's
 news from bulletins or early esitiors of l compliments members in the eastern
 cities and at the mere cost of teleeraphic
 transmission cause it to be published in