Here’s the latest – a cert petition in a case (and an issue) we’ve been following that asks can a government action that is a violation of copyright also be a taking?
Bynum wrote, researched, and edited a book, a biography of Texas A & M’s famed “12th Man” of the football squad. During his research, he met with officials from the university’s athletic department and later emailed them a “PDF of the full book,” noting that it was not final and only for the recipient’s review.
Next up, trouble: the official (allegedly) “directed his secretary to re-type the Biography and to remove any reference to Bynum of to Epic Sports’ copyright information. [The official] rewrote the PDF’s byline to [indicate that another author had written the book] and changed the title. And “[o]ver the next 72 hours, the Department disseminated the full Biography to hundreds of thousands of recipients” and posted it on the school’s website, Tweeted a link to the book, and quoted from the book.
Bynum was not happy. Eventually, the school removed the book from the website. But not good...