Research-Publishing Web Site Bugs Brokerages

Lehman Brothers Holdings, Merrill Lynch & Co. and Morgan Stanley together have sued a New Jersey-based Web site that they claim infringed on their copyright by reproducing the companies’ research reports. Filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the brokerage units of the three companies say theflyonthewall.com on at least a dozen occasions since February 2005 posted online “confidential, time-sensitive equity research” on its Web site soon after it was released. According to Investment News, the Web site apparently is no longer posting the reports verbatim, though its paraphrasing is strikingly similar to the actual reports. “Very simply, Fly is taking what is not theirs and exploiting it for their own benefit – at the expense of the banks and their clients,” the plaintiffs charge in a statement. IN says the Web site charged subscribers between $15 and $25 monthly for its various services. The lawsuit seeks $150,000 for each infringement plus a court order to bar any infringing activity.