Google and Twitter Argue Court-Ordered News Delay Is ‘Obsolete’ in Internet Age
Google and Twitter have filed an amicus brief that supports a financial news website’s legal fight to quickly publish research by bank analysts at several Wall Street firms.
Google and Twitter said that in an age of instant communication, any ban on immediate dissemination of news is “obsolete,” Reuters reports.
The brief urges the New York City-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn an injunction by U.S. District Judge Denise Cote barring the website Theflyonthewall.com from publishing immediate news of the research. Cote ordered the website to delay the news until the New York financial markets open, or for two hours if they are already open, according to the Bloomberg story on the amicus brief.
The Wall Street firms had contended their analysts’ recommendations were hot news and the redistribution of the material by the subscription website was misappropriation, according to Cotes’ March opinion (PDF posted by Gibbons IP Law Alert). Cote agreed, saying Theflyonthewall.com was “free-riding” on the firms’ research.
Twitter and Google argued that Cote’s ruling could have a negative effect on a variety of online services, according to the Bloomberg story.
“In a world of modern communications technology, where anyone with a cellphone may disseminate news throughout the world even as it is occurring, the notion that a single media outlet should have a monopoly on time-sensitive facts is not only contrary to law, it is, as a practical matter, futile,” Google and Twitter wrote.
