Schoolhouse, Inc. v. Jeff Anderson

The parties to this lawsuit publish information about schools in and around
Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota. The plaintiff, Schoolhouse, Inc. (Schoolhouse),
publishes its information in a magazine. The principal defendant, Jeff Anderson,
posts his information on an internet website. Schoolhouse alleges that Anderson
created his website by copying the selection and the arrangement of topics in Schoolhouse's magazine. The district court 1 granted summary judgment in favor of
Anderson, and Schoolhouse appeals. We affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

Schoolhouse publishes an annual magazine marketed to prospective home
buyers in Minneapolis, St. Paul, and the surrounding area. Schoolhouse distributes
its magazine through local real estate agents. In addition to articles, the magazine
features tables of information on area public and private schools. This appeal
involves the table of information on public schools in the 1996 edition of
Schoolhouse's magazine.

Schoolhouse's table organizes and reports information by topic. School
districts are listed alphabetically in a column at the left-hand side of the table. Topic
headings are listed in a row across the top of the table. There are many topics in the
Schoolhouse table. Some, such as "Bachelor," "Masters," and "Doctorate" describe
the academic degrees attained by staff members. Others, such as "French," "Spanish,"
and "German," describe particular classes schools may offer. The substantive content
of the table is information listed under these topics, for example, the number of staff
members with particular degrees and whether a school offers particular courses.

Schoolhouse arranges its topics in various ways. Most broadly, Schoolhouse
divides its topics into two categories, "Athletic" and "Characteristic," and places
those categories in separate sub-tables. The seventeen "Athletic" topics list all the
sports that local schools generally offer. The remaining "Characteristic" topics
describe information about students, teachers, classes, school facilities, and school
services. Within the Schoolhouse table, "Characteristic" topics are often grouped
according to their general subject matter. For example, the topics "French,"
"Spanish," and "German," along with other course titles, are arranged in the group
"Classes Offered."

Jeff Anderson, a Twin Cities real estate agent, also organizes and lists
information on local schools. Anderson compiles and publishes his information on
an internet website, which he designed with the help of Margaret Richardson. Unlike
Schoolhouse, Anderson does not publish information on all area schools in a single
table. Instead, Anderson's website provides a list of school districts with links to
information on each school. When an internet user clicks on a school district, the
website takes the user to a page of information Anderson has compiled exclusively
on that district.

The pages of information on Anderson's website do not consist solely of tables.
Each page does include a table of information on "School Statistics" – statistics on
school population, accreditation, pupil/staff ratio, and pupil/computer ratio at various
schools in the district. On the rest of each page, however, topics are broken down into
groups and each group of topics is displayed in a separate row. For example, there
is a row of information on "Certified Staff," a row on "Classes Offered," and a row
of "Miscellaneous" information. "Athletic" information is listed in this same format
on the same page as non-athletic data.

Schoolhouse's table and Anderson's website cover many of the same topics.
For example, both provide information on the population of school districts and
schools, on the availability of services like busing and hot lunch, on staff credentials
and certification, on classes offered, and on student test scores. Many of the topics
within these general groups – such as whether a school offers a particular foreign
language – appear both in the Schoolhouse table and on Anderson's website. Viewed
in the light most favorable to Schoolhouse, the 64 topics covered by Anderson's
website include 56 of the 76 topics listed in the Schoolhouse table.

Schoolhouse filed this lawsuit alleging copyright infringement, unfair business
practices, and unfair competition. The district court granted summary judgment to
Anderson on Schoolhouse's copyright infringement claim and dismissed
Schoolhouse's state-law claims without prejudice. Schoolhouse now appeals the
grant of summary judgment on its copyright infringement claim, arguing that there was a genuine issue of material fact as to whether the two works are substantially
similar.

* * *

Schoolhouse's table on public schools is a factual compilation. Under the law
of copyright, a compilation is a work formed by selecting or arranging preexisting
data "in such a way that the resulting work as a whole constitutes an original work of
authorship." 17 U.S.C. § 101. Because copyright law protects only expression, and
not ideas or facts, copyright protection for a factual compilation is "thin." Feist
Publ'ns, Inc. v. Rural Tel. Serv. Co., 499 U.S. 340, 349 (1991). As applied to a
factual compilation, copyright law protects an author's original selection and
arrangement of facts, but the facts and ideas within the compilation are free for the
taking. Id. at 348-49.

Anderson concedes that Schoolhouse has a valid copyright in its table. To
establish a violation of its copyright, Schoolhouse must prove that Anderson had
access to its table and that there is substantial similarity, both in ideas and expression,
between the original elements of its table and Anderson's website. See Hartman v.
Hallmark Cards, Inc., 833 F.2d 117, 120 (8th Cir. 1987). Because Anderson
concedes that he had access to Schoolhouse's table, the only issue in dispute is
whether Anderson's website bears substantial similarity to the original selection and
arrangement of topics in Schoolhouse's table.

* * *

Click the case caption above for the full
text of the Court's opinion.

Although there are some objective similarities in the ideas expressed by
Schoolhouse's table and Anderson's website, the two works express their ideas so
differently that ordinary, reasonable minds could not find them substantially similar.
The selection and the arrangement of facts by Schoolhouse in its magazine table are,
as a matter of law, not substantially similar to the selection and the arrangement of
facts on Anderson's internet website. Accordingly, we affirm the judgment of the
district court. In addition, we deny Anderson's request that we sanction Schoolhouse for allegedly filing a frivolous motion to strike Anderson's brief.

Unknown

Unknown

E-mail suggested corrections, comments and/or corrections to:
Kent Morlan

Welcome Video