248 U.S. 215 (1918)
The Associated Press is a cooperative organization incorporated under New York law.1 Its members are proprietors or representatives of about 950 daily newspapers.2 It gathers news worldwide through its own correspondents, exchanges with members, and other means at an annual cost of approximately $3,500,000 assessed upon the members.3
Each member agrees that news received through the service is for exclusive publication in a designated newspaper and place.4 No other use is permitted.5 No member shall furnish the news in advance of publication to any non-member.6 Each member also supplies its local news exclusively to the Associated Press.7
International News Service is a New Jersey corporation engaged in gathering and selling news to approximately 400 subscribing newspapers under contracts.8 Its annual operating cost exceeds $2,000,000.9 The two organizations compete directly in the distribution of news throughout the United States.10 The newspapers they serve likewise compete in their respective districts.11
International News Service obtained Associated Press news by copying from bulletin boards and early editions of newspapers published by Associated Press members on the East Coast.12 It transmitted the material by telegraph to its own western subscribers for publication.13 It sometimes rewrote the dispatches while using the same facts.14 It also obtained news before publication by bribing employees of Associated Press member newspapers and by inducing members to violate the by-laws.15
The bill was filed in the District Court for the Southern District of New York.16 The District Court granted a preliminary injunction against bribing employees and inducing by-law violations.17 It declined to enjoin the copying from bulletins and early editions.18 The Circuit Court of Appeals sustained the existing injunction.19 On the complainant's appeal, it modified the decree to add an injunction against bodily taking of the news until its commercial value as news had passed.20 The Supreme Court granted certiorari.21
Whether there is any property in news?22
No. The Supreme Court determined that news lacks the attributes of property in the absolute sense because it is not the creation of the writer but a report of matters that are publici juris.26
However, as between competitors, it acquires the characteristics of quasi-property when gathered at substantial cost.27 The Associated Press expends approximately $3,500,000 annually to gather news through its own correspondents and exchanges.28 International News Service systematically copied the news from bulletin boards and early editions without incurring that expense.29 It thereby appropriated the fruits of the complainant's labor.30
News has the characteristics of quasi-property as between competitors, sufficient to support an action for unfair competition by misappropriation.31
Related opinions on this issue
Joined by Justice Mckenna
Justice Holmes agreed that the systematic appropriation of the complainant's news by the defendant is unfair competition and should be enjoined.32 He maintained that news cannot be regarded as property in the usual sense.33 The only property is in the particular physical embodiment of the news, not in the facts themselves.34 He would limit the injunction to the particular practices shown, copying from bulletin boards and early editions.35
Justice Holmes concurred in the result but dissented from the broader reasoning regarding property in news.36
Justice Brandeis dissented from the holding that news is quasi-property.37 He argued that the facts of life are not susceptible of ownership.38 The complainant's interest is in the business of gathering and distributing news, not in the news itself.39 The defendant's conduct is at most a breach of confidence or violation of trade custom.40 It does not constitute a tort of misappropriation of property.41
Justice Brandeis concluded that the proper remedy lies with Congress through legislation rather than judicial creation of a new property right.42 The decree should be reversed.43
Whether, if there be property in news collected for the purpose of being published, it survives the instant of its publication in the first newspaper to which it is communicated by the news-gatherer?44
No. The Court held that upon publication the news becomes common property as against the public.47
However, between the parties as competitors, the quasi-property interest survives the moment of first publication and continues until the news loses its commercial value.48 The Associated Press members published the news on bulletin boards and in early editions on the East Coast.49 International News Service's transmission to western subscribers occurred while the news retained its value due to time differentials.50 This allowed the appropriation to be enjoined until that value passed.51
The property interest in news does not survive publication as against the public but does survive between competitors until its commercial value passes.52
Whether defendant's admitted course of conduct in appropriating for commercial use matter taken from bulletins or early editions of Associated Press publications constitutes unfair competition in trade?53
Yes. The Court found that the defendant's systematic copying from bulletin boards and early editions and selling the news to its own customers in competition with the complainant amounts to misappropriation of the fruits of the complainant's labor and expense.56 International News Service obtained the news at the mere cost of telegraphic transmission without bearing the expense of gathering it. It thereby diverted profit from those who earned it to those who had not.57
Equity restrains this practice as unfair competition in business.
The defendant's course of conduct constitutes unfair competition in trade, and the injunction is affirmed.58