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08/27/2004
AP, Simon & Schuster Resolve Copyright
Dispute Over Hillary Clinton Book
NEW YORK (Aug. 27, 2004) –The Associated Press today
announced the addition of a new internal training program
on copyright law for its journalists.
The program will focus on the use of copyright material in
news reporting, an issue of increasing complexity. Simon &
Schuster along with other leading book publishers will be
invited to participate in the program with copyright experts
and AP journalists.
The addition of this training program resolves a dispute between
Simon & Schuster and AP over AP's publication last year
of excerpts of "Living History" by Hillary Rodham
Clinton.
Simon & Schuster objected that AP had engaged in copyright
infringement by publishing significant protected material
from "Living History" before it was officially released.
The AP disagreed, stressing the significant news value of
the information revealed in the book.
Despite that disagreement, the news cooperative said it understood
Simon & Schuster's rights under copyright law and the
publisher's strong concerns for the protection of legitimate
intellectual property rights that encourage public figures
to tell their stories. The additional training program will
explore what copyright protects, what can fairly be used from
copyright material and other related legal issues, including
copyright protections of AP work.
"We are gratified by AP's willingness to launch this
training program," said Carolyn Reidy, President of the
Adult Publishing Group at Simon & Schuster, Inc. "We
value our relationship with AP and other media outlets, and
hoped from the start that we would be able to resolve our
dispute in a manner that recognized our shared interests in
both the
free reporting of news and the protection of intellectual
property rights."
"We're pleased to add this dimension to our news training
programs," said Kathleen Carroll, Senior Vice President
and Executive Editor at AP. "The number of public figures
who pen books loaded with news items has increased the need
for journalists to have the best possible understanding of
publishing laws and the balance between the obligation to
respect intellectual property rights and the right to report
the news."
For more information contact:
Jack Stokes, Director of Media Relations, Corporate Communications,
212-621-1720, jstokes@ap.org,
at The Associated Press
Adam Rothberg, Vice President, Corporate Communications, 212-698-1132,
adam.rothberg@simonandschuster.com,
at Simon & Schuster
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