Yesterday, ‘FlyontheWall’ a company with approximately 5,000 subscribers won a long battle with big banks including Barclays, Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch over ‘hot’ news dissemination:
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals today handed Theflyonthewall.com a complete victory in its long running battle with the investment firms Barclays Capital, Merrill Lynch, and Morgan Stanley, that sought to enjoin Theflyonthewall.com from reporting “hot news” to its subscribers relating to the investment firms’ recommendations to their own subscribers. The Second Circuit had previously stayed the injunction issued against Theflyonthewall.com, but today the Second Circuit unanimously reversed the district court opinion in a sweeping 71 page opinion that will define the dissemination of hot news in the digital era. Glenn Ostrager, lead counsel for Theflyonthewall.com, stated that “the case was among the most challenging cases I have ever handled because of the enormous legal resources the investment firms drew upon to prosecute the case”. Nevertheless, Ostrager said that he always believed in the merits of the case and he is gratified that the Second Circuit has written a definitive opinion clarifying the law in this area. Theflyonthewall.com will continue to publish its daily news feeds.
The KEY Decision:
“We conclude that in this case, a Firm’s ability to make the news — by issuing a Recommendation that is likely to affect the market price of a security — does not give rise to a right for it to control who breaks that news and how.”
I don’t think Twitter cared, but they should have. In relation to the music companies suing YouTube (as a comparison because of the damages implied), this is a fly on a rat’s ass, which makes it all the more disturbing that the banks would even care about this with all the losses we have eaten as a nation on their behalf. But, they did and if the banks won this, their next target might have been a Twitter or Facebook.
You can download this ‘EVIL’ harmful Wall Street Data stream from ‘FlyontheWall’ in the Stocktwits Marketplace for $25/month and you will enjoy it. The product is great for sure, but most exciting is to have in our sites the stupid walls that Wall Street has been building and not willing to take down (even with Reg FD).
Congrats to a ballsy and determined team at ‘FlyontheWall’ for not backing down to a legal and financial onslaught brought on by bullies who don’t want to enter the digital and social web age. It is coming for them anyway.