By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC - Guardian UK - Honduras - The Source
SDNY COURTHOUSE, Sept 22 – Historian Ehsan Yarshater compiled an Encyclopedia Iranica while working at Columbia University. He founded the Persian Heritage Foundation to continue the work.
Now Columbia is said to claim title to his work.
On July 1, 2020 U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Magistrate Judge Kevin N. Fox. held a proceeding. Inner City Press covered it.
Judge Fox has ordered an inventory of the disputed materials. Columbia is dispute even that, but lost a June 11 order by Judge Fox, who overruled Columbia's objections. Inner City Press reported on July 1, the fight continues. And it has.
On July 31, 2020 the plaintiffs sought a Temporary Restraining Order from District Judge Analisa Torres. They said Columbia is destroying the project, now telling authors that they are given up all right to what they right, and trying to exclude the public from the encyclopedia.
Columbia's lawyer replied that the University is much more than a landlord. Judge Torres on the evening of July 31 granted a TRO.
On August 26, after the evidentiary hearing, she extended it to October 8. On that date, she denied a preliminary injunction. But the case has proceeded.
On January 28, 2021 Magistrate Judge Fox held a proceeding, and Inner City Press covered it. At issue were the cataloguing not only of written documents - seemingly agreed to - but of computer records, not agreed to. The fight continues.
On September 22, 2021, Judge Fox held another proceeding, and Inner City Press again covered it. The plaintiff argued that he has not gotten (back) the documents quickly enough. Columbia replied that the documents are in dispute but will be produced in and as discovery. Later Judge Fox ordered: 1) all discovery, of whatever nature, shall be initiated so as to be completed on or before June 22, 2022; 2) any dispositive motion shall be made in accordance with the assigned district judge's Individual Rules of Practice; and 3) if no dispositive motion is made, the parties shall submit their joint pretrial order to the court on or before July 22, 2022.
Watch this site.
The case is The Trustees Of Columbia University in the City of New York v. Encyclopaedia Iranica Foundation, 19-cv-7465 (Torres / Fox).
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