It had licensed the directory of 11 other local directories, with Rural being the only holdout in the region. specialized in compiling telephone directories from larger geographic areas than Rural from other areas of Kansas. The company was under a statutory obligation to compile and distribute a " white pages" phone directory of all its customers free of charge as a condition of its monopoly franchise.įeist Publications, Inc. is a telephone cooperative providing services for areas in northwest Kansas, with headquarters in the small town of Lenora, in Norton County. The "white pages" of a telephone directory The Court ruled that information contained in Rural's phone directory was not copyrightable and that therefore no infringement existed. In the case appealed, Feist had copied information from Rural's telephone listings to include in its own, after Rural had refused to license the information. 340 (1991), was a landmark decision by the Supreme Court of the United States establishing that information alone without a minimum of original creativity cannot be protected by copyright. O'Connor, joined by Rehnquist, White, Marshall, Stevens, Scalia, Kennedy, Souterįeist Publications, Inc., v.
Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed.Ĭhief Justice William Rehnquist Associate Justices Byron White The white pages of a telephone book did not satisfy the minimum originality required by the Constitution to be eligible for copyright protection, and effort and expenditure of resources are not protected by copyright.
WHITE PAGES KANSAS FULL
1990) affirmed, full opinion at 1990 U.S.
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