Judge to review UnCover settlement files

[Irvin Muchnick <irvmuch@xxxxxxxxx>]

JUDGE TO REVIEW UNCOVER SETTLEMENT FILES

A federal judge will review sealed files in the
precedent-setting class-action copyright infringement case
*Ryan v. CARL* as part of his consideration of a motion to
open the records for public inspection. At a hearing in
Oakland on June 28, United States District Court Senior
Judge D. Lowell Jensen said that such a review was
necessary in order to determine whether the documents in
question included properly protected trade secrets.

Last month I moved to intervene for the limited purpose of
unsealing records pertaining to the execution of the $7.25
million settlement in *Ryan*, a case involving claims by
freelance magazine and journal writers against the UnCover
document delivery service. I do not seek to reverse or
alter the settlement itself. I am a freelance journalist
and a former assistant director of the National Writers
Union who worked from 1997 to 2000 as a consultant for the
*Ryan* plaintiffs? attorneys.

My request to unseal court files was prompted by the
exposure of mistakes made by *Ryan*?s settlement claims
administrator, the Arthur Andersen accounting firm, which
recently was convicted on federal charges for its role in
shredding documents in the Enron scandal. According to the
open portion of the *Ryan* court file, Arthur Andersen
received a fee of $500,000. The first copyright class
action on behalf of authors in the history of American
jurisprudence, *Ryan* led to a second similar class action,
currently pending in federal court in New York, against
other operators of electronic databases marketing
freelance writers? previously published articles. Though no
longer involved as a litigation consultant, I continue to
investigate and write about this area. My commentaries on
*Ryan* and related authors? rights issues are collected at
the website ?Electronic Rights & Wrongs,?
<http://www.geocities.com/irvmuch/home.html>. The site
contents can be viewed at
<http://www.geocities.com/irvmuch/contents.html>.

I view Judge Jensen?s action as a positive development and
I look forward to the court?s review of the *Ryan*
documents. My sincere thanks go to San Francisco attorney
Roy Gordet for his skillful advocacy of my motion.

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