Most who have followed Professor Carol Shloss's lawsuit against the Estate of James Joyce and its Trustees know she prevailed completely when the Estate agreed to let her publish the materials at issue free from copyright infringement liability. Now the Court has confirmed what we all knew to be true. In an order issued today, the Court held that Shloss is the prevailing party in her lawsuit and is therefore entitled to recover attorneys' fees from the Estate. Read the order here.
The amount of fees to be awarded is still to be determined, but we hope this demonstrates that inadequate respect for fair use's critical role in scholarly inquiry and free expression can have substantial and serious consequences.