Court Upholds Website Copycat Lawsuit Says Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp.

Entertainment Editors/Legal Writers

FRESNO, Calif.--(ENTERTAINMENT WIRE)--Oct. 24, 2000

Judge's Decision Opens Door For Website Operators To Defend

Their Time-Sensitive, Factual Content From Free Riders.

A federal district court judge upheld a suit brought by the operator of a concert information website to stop a competitor from copying and using concert information from the site according to Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp.

Although the suit does not allege federal copyright infringement, the court found that the plaintiff had the right to proceed with the suit under California's misappropriation and unfair competition laws.

Last May, Pollstar, a California-based company that provides worldwide concert tour information at its popular web site www.pollstar.com, filed suit against Gigmania Ltd. in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California.

The suit alleges that Gigmania regularly copies Pollstar's concert information and then posts it on its own web site at www.gigmania.com. Pollstar's suit seeks damages and injunctive relief for, among other things, misappropriation and unfair competition.

Gigmania moved to dismiss the case on the ground that Pollstar's misappropriation and unfair competition claims are barred under U.S. copyright law.

Since 1991, when the United States Supreme Court held in Feist Publications, Inc. v. Rural Tel. Serv. Co. that a "white pages" phone directory was not "original" enough to be copyrighted because it was "so mechanical or routine as to require no creativity whatsoever", courts have been reluctant to protect databases -- such as Pollstar's concert information database -- from copying by others.

Pollstar contended, however, that its concert information should be entitled to protection under the misappropriation and unfair competition laws of the State of California.

Pollstar pointed out that it incurs substantial cost in gathering its concert information, that Pollstar and Gigmania are direct competitors, that much of the value of Pollstar's concert information is derived from the fact that the concert information is up-to-date, and that the ability of a competitor to "free ride" Pollstar's efforts, jeopardizes the existence of Pollstar's service.

The Court agreed with Pollstar and rejected all of Gigmania's arguments for dismissal.

"As content providers, we are, of course, very happy with the Court's ruling", says Gary Bongiovanni, President of Pollstar. "We look forward to proving our case against Gigmania at trial."

"As far as we are aware, this is the first time since Feist that a court has found that, absent some contractual obligation, a factual database is entitled to legal protection from copying", says Pollstar's attorney Steven Shapiro of the Los Angeles law firm of Mitchell, Silberberg & Knupp. "This decision has significant implications for website owners who seek to protect time-sensitive, factual information posted on their sites from copying by competitors."

Pollstar has been computerizing information since 1981 for the professional booking agents, facility managers, promoters and artist managers who make the concert industry run. Pollstar.com has been the public's leading source of concert tour information on the Internet since its debut in 1994.

The Web site is updated several times a day by a staff of 60 people based on four continents and currently contains information on more than 5,100 active tours and more than 37,000 individual events.

Mitchell, Silberberg & Knupp LLP of Los Angeles, California is representing Pollstar in this matter. The firm is headquartered in Los Angeles with more than 125 attorneys specializing in business law. The firm's practice emphasizes entertainment and new media, technology and intellectual property, corporate, commercial litigation, labor and employment and estate planning.