A Hudson Valley publisher who planted phony stories on its website is demanding nearly $5 million from a California competitor it claims it caught in acts of plagiarism.
The Legal Advocate, published by Belsito Communications of New Windsor, charged iLegal News and attorney Patrick Steinfeld of Los Angeles with copyright infringement last month in U.S. District Court, White Plains.
The iLegal News website, according to the complaint, is nothing more than a “disguised advertisement for Patrick Steinfeld and Steinfeld Law Firm.”
Steinfeld readily agreed in a telephone interview that he, and a lot of attorneys in California, publish legal news in the hope of “getting the phone to ring.”
The Legal Advocate appears to employ a similar business model: lawyers who advertise are liberally quoted in stories and depicted as legal analysts, readers are alerted to their legal rights, the analysts are touted as experienced in their vary areas of the law, and the analysts”™ contact information is included.
The Legal Advocate claims that what sets it apart from iLegal News are investigative reporting, analysis and timely articles produced by a full-time staff of reporters. Such breaking news about automobile accidents, for example, are valuable because they can create business leads for personal injury law firms.
Though news cannot be copyrighted, the complaint explains, a writer”™s analysis and interpretation of events, and the manner in which a story is written, are protected.
Steinfeld added that facts also cannot be copyrighted, and that he may make fair use of published facts.
“I will tell you,” he said, “I don’t copy and paste their facts.”
Steinfeld also disputed whether the Legal Advocate provides unique analysis or investigative reporting. He described the Legal Advocate’s analyses as a few boilerplate passages that are rotated among stories and that are not specific to the accident being reported.
Steinfeld, a West Hills, Los Angeles accident attorney, registered iLegal News with the California secretary of state on April 23, according to the complaint. Then the site began publishing local and national legal news on topics such as product liability, personal injuries and wrongful deaths.
Two days after the Legal Advocate published an article in April about a Hondurian refugee injured in a Los Angeles accident, iLegal published a similar item.
Both articles were about an actual event, according to the Legal Advocate”™s complaint.
But Belsito also created numerous “seed” stories, “entirely invented, novel and creative works posing as original breaking news.”
“Bo Powelton, 21, sadly killed in auto-pedestrian accident,” the Legal Advocate headlined on April 21, about a fictitious West Hills accident.
On the same day, iLegal headlined, “Bo Powelton in fatal West Hills pedestrian accident.”
Belsito cites 33 stories that iLegal allegedly copycatted, and all but two were made up.
As a lawyer who claims to be a nationally recognized attorney who maintains the highest professional and ethical standards, the complaint states, Steinfeld should understand copyright law.
Courts interpret fake stories as if they are factual, Steinfeld said, and as protected against copyright infringement. As long as he is publishing the purported facts accurately, he says he has not violated the copyright protections for unique analysis or writing.
Belsito is demanding $150,000 for each of the 33 alleged copyright infringements, or $4,950,000.
“He can’t prove any damages,” Steinfeld said. “My stories sometimes got 3 views, or 30 or 40 views. I didn’t get a single case out of it. I only did it for about 6 months and I didn’t make any money. I lost money.”
The Legal News, operated by Joseph Belsito, is represented by Poughkeepsie attorney Joanna M. Longcore.
