OTW Files Amicus Brief in the Salinger Case

The OTW is proud to have been asked to collaborate with the American Library Association, the Association of Research Libraries, the Association of College and Research Libraries, and the Right to Write Fund on an amicus brief in the pending Salinger/60 Years Later case. The OTW's Rebecca Tushnet and Casey Fiesler collaborated with lawyers from Stanford's Center for the Internet and Society and the UC Berkeley School of Law to produce the brief, which was served on August 3, 2009. The appeal is scheduled to be heard in New York's Second Circuit Court of Appeals in early September.

While the OTW isn't typically interested in defending commercial uses, we obviously do have a stake in the way courts define transformative use. We participated to support the position that the really restrictive definition adopted by the district court (seeing transformativeness very narrowly as parody and nothing else) be reversed on appeal. The New York Times and Public Citizen also filed amicus briefs.

For more information:

• Download a .pdf of the amicus brief (right-click and save).
• Read attorney of record Anthony Falzone's blog post about the brief, Confusion Over Copyright Injunctions And Other Restraints Of Speech.