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leatherman
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Interesting read: http://www.precydent.com/citation/736/F.2d/859
Basically, they copied Beckett's "Sport Americana Baseball Card Price Guide" but used different prices which were updated monthly. A non-jury trial found that they did NOT infringe on Beckett's work because they did not prove that CPU copied from Beckett, but that was reversed in appeals. After reading this below, it seems hard to believe that they didn't think CPU copied Beckett:
"There are numerous common errors. For example, the Price Guide inadvertently omitted from its 1963 Topps list the card for Bill Virdon, a rookie of the year in the mid-fifties and later a manager for the New York Yankees. It appears undisputed that the Virdon card would qualify as premium. Strikingly, the listing of the same set in CPU has the same omission despite the fact that CPU purports to list all premium cards. Similarly, there is an inexplicable identity between the Guide and CPU with respect to the particular manner in which the 1933 "Delong" set is checklisted. Although many of the listings of cards in the various series in the Guide contain the first and last name of the player listed, the Guide lists only the players' last names in the "Delong" series with two exceptions: "Lou Gehrig" and "W. Terry." The CPU "Delong" checklist matches this pattern completely; CPU's checklist, with the exception of "Lou Gehrig" and "W. Terry," uses the players' last names only. Further examples of indisputable copying abound in the record."
David
Basically, they copied Beckett's "Sport Americana Baseball Card Price Guide" but used different prices which were updated monthly. A non-jury trial found that they did NOT infringe on Beckett's work because they did not prove that CPU copied from Beckett, but that was reversed in appeals. After reading this below, it seems hard to believe that they didn't think CPU copied Beckett:
"There are numerous common errors. For example, the Price Guide inadvertently omitted from its 1963 Topps list the card for Bill Virdon, a rookie of the year in the mid-fifties and later a manager for the New York Yankees. It appears undisputed that the Virdon card would qualify as premium. Strikingly, the listing of the same set in CPU has the same omission despite the fact that CPU purports to list all premium cards. Similarly, there is an inexplicable identity between the Guide and CPU with respect to the particular manner in which the 1933 "Delong" set is checklisted. Although many of the listings of cards in the various series in the Guide contain the first and last name of the player listed, the Guide lists only the players' last names in the "Delong" series with two exceptions: "Lou Gehrig" and "W. Terry." The CPU "Delong" checklist matches this pattern completely; CPU's checklist, with the exception of "Lou Gehrig" and "W. Terry," uses the players' last names only. Further examples of indisputable copying abound in the record."
David
