The Sec­ond Cir­cuit has revis­ited the issue of New York “hot news” mis­ap­pro­pri­a­tion claims, and the extent to which such claims are pre­empted by the Copy­right Act.  The plain­tiffs in Bar­clays Cap­i­tal case were major finan­cial insti­tu­tions that not only pro­vide secu­ri­ties bro­ker­age ser­vices, but also pro­vide research and rec­om­men­da­tions con­cern­ing the pur­chase and sale of secu­ri­ties.  The plain­tiffs dis­trib­ute these rec­om­men­da­tions largely to encour­age trans­ac­tions, and make their money on the trans­ac­tions (not the rec­om­men­da­tions them­selves).  The defen­dant, flyonthewall.com, pro­vides an elec­tron­i­cally dis­trib­uted news ser­vice and, among other things, uses var­i­ous means to obtain the plain­tiffs’ secu­ri­ties rec­om­men­da­tions and then reports them. The plain­tiffs sued flyonthewall.com for “hot news” mis­ap­pro­pri­a­tion. [Read more…]