Eugene Volokh points our attention to yet another bizarre copyright case, Denison v. Larkin, in which lawyer Joanne Denison argued that the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission (IARDC) infringed on her copyrights by using portions of her own blog as evidence against her during a disciplinary proceeding.

Not surprisingly, the court soundly rejected this particular interpretation of copyright law….

Basically, Denison created a blog about what she and some others believed was “courtroom corruption” concerning a particular 90-year-old woman. Some of those involved in the story filed a disciplinary complaint against Denison, “alleging professional misconduct in making false statements on her Blog.” The complaint itself included “15 paragraphs of text” from the blog. Further, she claims that the IARDC “copied over 1,000 pages of the Blog and ‘then incorporated [it] into further exhibits.'” She also sued Nextpoint, a company that the IARDC apparently used to save copies of the blog. The (rather patient) court goes through a full fair use analysis, finding (rather easily) that all four of the traditional “fair use factors” weigh heavily in favor of fair use. Based on that, it finds no direct infringement — and without any direct infringement, the claims of contributory and vicarious infringement fail as well.

Amusingly, Denison tried to argue that the “commercial use” fair use factor weighed in her favor because “the IARDC sells its decisions to companies such as Lexis Nexis and Westlaw for paid or unpaid benefits.” The court rather simply points out: “This statement is unfounded.”

In the end, it was an easy fair use win (and those are always handy), though this case appeared to be absurd from the start. So it’s great to see the court make quick work of it without causing any trouble to fair use.

Lawyer Says It’s Copyright Infringement To Use Her Own Blog Posts Against Her In Disciplinary Proceedings

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