Stanford Center for Internet and Society

This article in Ms. Somma's local paper discusses the settlement.

We are pleased to report that the parties have reached an amicable resolution of this litigation. The parties have jointly issued a press release announcing the settlement (press release). The terms of the settlement are otherwise confidential.

Ms. Somma is the author of After the Rain: A New Adventure for Peter Pan, ISBN 0973063947 (Daisy Books, 2002). To purchase, please contact sales@daisybooks.com, or visit www.chapters.indigo.ca.

We filed a Motion to Amend the Complaint today to add a claim for copyright misuse by GOSH. The motion will be heard on March 18, 2005, before the Hon. Judge Jeffrey S. WHite, of the District Court in San Francisco. See Proposed Second Amended Complaint.

NPR's All Things Considered recently broadcast a background story about JM Barrie and the Peter Pan stories. The broadcast is available for download here.

Now and again, we're contacted by authors who have had difficulty getting approval for a story about Peter Pan that they would like publish. If you have tried to negotiate a license with the Defendant (Great Ormond Street Hospital) in the past and would like to share your story with us, please contact CIS. We'd like to hear from you.

District Judge White reassigned our settlement judge. The settlement conference will now be before Magistrate Judge Bernard Zimmerman sometime before February 18, 2005.

Judge Zimmerman, like all settlement judges, will not be involved in other aspects of the case (like making discovery or dispositive motion rulings). The parties will appear in person before Judge Zimmerman and, if there's room for negotiation, he will work towards resolving the dispute before the case proceeds further on the litigation front.

Here's another story published yesterday at CNN.com about the Peter and the Starcatchers dispute between Disney and GOSH.

The press is reporting a dispute between GOSH and Disney over the publishing of a Peter Pan "prequel" -- entitled Peter and the Starcatchers -- by Disney's subsidiary (Hyperion). The book was written by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson. The Telegraph (London) appears to have broken the story yesterday (Telegraph article), and today the NY Post reported on it too (NYPost article). The Telegraph story refers to Emily Somma's case

A few weeks ago the Defendant initiated a "contest" to find an author to write a sequel to Peter Pan. In its press release, it claims the US copyright in Peter Pan does not run out until 2023. The press release also assumes that authors who wish to write sequels to Peter Pan must have the Defendant's blessing. Of course, nothing is further from the truth.

A few news outlets recently picked up the story and printed articles about the contest. We are surprised that some news media took the Defendant's statements as fact, without first verifying the copyright status. None of the medial contacted us about this litigation which directly challenges the Defendant's contentions regarding the copyright status.

The Case Management Conference took place on Friday before Judge Jeffrey S. White.

Prior to the conference, the parties submitted a supplemental joint statement. Rather than address issues that are normally covered in a joint statement (briefing schedules, trial dates, scope of discovery and the like), the Defendant attempted (unsuccessfully) to deflect attention from its own wrongdoings by turning the spotlight to CIS, calling the case "a cause." Interestingly, Defendant's portion of the statement declares that "[e]very party and lawyer involved in this matter knows that no [reasonable apprehension of being sued by Defendant] exists." (p. 4) Of course, nothing could be further from the truth, and we see Defendant's effort to downplay its conduct as a sign of the strength of Ms. Somma's underlying claims.