Penguin Wins 'Parker' Lawsuit

Stuart Y. Silverstein isn't having any fun today.

After six years of legal wrangling, the editor of the compilation Not Much Fun: The Lost Poems of Dorothy Parker lost his copyright infringement case against Penguin Group (USA), a division of Pearson(PSO Quote).

Parker, a literary lion who wrote poems, stories and screenplays, is best known as a humorist and member of the 1920s literary group the Algonquin Round Table. During her lifetime she published three poetry compilations. Silverstein published the poems Parker "lost" or, as some academics say, chose to forget.

In a ruling that came down Wednesday, U.S. District Court Judge John F. Keenan found Penguin not liable on all three causes of action alleged in the complaint -- copyright infringement, unfair competition and unfair and immoral trade practices under New York state law, and the misrepresentation of Silverstein's work as being done by Penguin. ...