TMZ’s OJ Leak
TMZ.com came across a copy of OJ Simpson’s “If I Did It” and leaked the entire manuscript as well as posting portions here. OJ’s a bad, bad man. But now TMZ (and their papa AOL/Time Warner) is in hot water from a trustee overseeing Simpson’s bankruptcy:
Last week a bankruptcy judge granted the family of Ron Goldman (the man who was brutally stabbed, along with Simpson’s ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson) copyright ownership of the manuscript so that Simpson can’t resell the book to another publisher and make a profit from it. The victims’ families were awarded a $33.5 million judgment against Simpson in 1997, but Simpson has managed to avoid paying it by declaring bankruptcy. The Goldman family can reap profits from the book now if it’s resold to another publisher.Oops. I wonder how this will impact the series.The trustee overseeing the bankruptcy case took court action (pdf) against TMZ.com for posting the manuscript and wants the web site to disclose where it got the book. According to the trustee, TMZ, along with AOL and Time Warner, have caused harm to the Goldman family and others by diminishing the value of the book and ruining the chance of making any money off of future sales.
Of course it’s a bit ironic that Time Warner — known for going after copyright infringers of its movies — is now in the hot seat for violating someone else’s copyright. See this action that Warner Brothers took in January against a blogger who was offering content from WB movies.
