Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc., et al. v. Nation Enterprises et al. (471 U.S. 539)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided May 20, 1985 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 471 U.S. 539 · 105 S. Ct. 2218
- Decided
- May 20, 1985
- Term
- October Term 1984
- Vote
- 6–3
- Majority author
- Justice O'Connor
- Issue area
- Economic Activity
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Justice O’Connor delivered the opinion of the Court. This case requires us to consider to what extent the “fair use” provision of the Copyright Revision Act of 1976 (hereinafter the Copyright Act), 17 U. S. C. § 107, sanctions the unauthorized use of quotations from a public figure’s unpublished manuscript. In March 1979, an undisclosed source provided The Nation Magazine with the unpublished manuscript of “A Time to Heal: The Autobiography of Gerald R. Ford.” Working directly from the purloined manuscript, an editor of The Nation produced a short piece entitled “The Ford Memoirs — Behind the Nixon Pardon.” The piece was timed to “scoop” an article scheduled shortly to appear in Time Magazine. Time had agreed to purchase the exclusive right to print prepublication excerpts from the copyright holders, Harper & Row Publishers, Inc. (hereinafter Harper & Row), and Reader’s Digest Association, Inc. (hereinafter Reader’s Digest). As a result of The Nation article, Time canceled its agreement. Petitioners brought a successful copyright action against The Nation. On appeal, the Second Circuit reversed the lower court’s finding of infringement, holding that The Nation’s act was sanctioned as a “fair use” of the copyrighted material. We granted certiorari, 467 U. S. 1214 (1984), and we now reverse. HH In February 1977, shortly after leaving the White House, former President Gerald R.…
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