CBS sues KCAA to stop IMUS rebroadcasts

"CBS Radio has gone to court to stop San Bernardino-based KCAA 1050 AM from re-broadcasting Don Imus' radio show. A federal lawsuit filed this week in Riverside says the station and its license-holder are violating copyright and seeks $150,000 for each time KCAA does it.

The suit seeks an immediate halt to the rebroadcasts with a temporary restraining order as well as a jury trial for the alleged copyright infringement by KCAA and its license holder, Broadcast Management Services in Texas.

The station management says it's a First Amendment issue, but CBS Radio attorneys say in court papers, "Copyright infringement is not protected by the First Amendment."

A hearing is set for Tuesday at federal court in Riverside before Judge Virginia A. Phillips.

CBS Radio also wants attorney's fees and any profits KCAA and Broadcast Management made by re-airing Imus' show.

"This is unlawful prior restraint," KCAA's attorney, Brian Oxman, said in a phone interview Thursday.

Since Monday, KCAA has rebroadcast old Imus episodes, cutting in with live calls from listeners and reading e-mails and letters from the public on the air.

Oxman said that the purpose of the forum is to educate the public.

"If you were rebroadcasting for a profit, sure, that's infringing a copyright," Oxman said. "There's no way in the world that this is copyright infringement."

On Tuesday, CBS Radio's lawyers wrote a cease and desist letter to the defendants.

"With all due respect, my compliance with your letter will sever a nationwide forum that CBS should encourage on the issue of abridging the freedom of speech," Lundgren responded in an e-mail.

He said it the responsibility fell to the affiliates to interact with the public response to Imus and said that as a license holder, a time for re-runs should have been given to the affiliates."

• From the Press-Enterprise article by Vanessa Franko, "CBS Suing KCAA Over Imus" 4/20/07

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