RICE v PALADIN ENTERPRISES

17 Dec 2003

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The RICE v PALADIN ENTERPRISES decision is up (or part of it anyway):

http://caselaw.findlaw.com/data2/circs/4th/962412p.html

This is the conclusion which cuts off at that last comma.

                 U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals

                      RICE v PALADIN ENTERPRISES

Certainly, such a conclusion would be reasonable based upon this promotional 
description coupled with the singular character of Hit Man, which is so 
narrowly focused in its subject matter and presenta- tion as to be 
effectively targeted exclusively to criminals. In other words, despite the 
fact that Paladin may technically offer the book for sale to all comers, we 
are satisfied that a jury could, based upon Hit Man's seemingly exclusive 
purpose to assist murderers in the com- mission of murder, reasonably 
conclude that Paladin essentially dis- tributed Hit Man only to murderers and 
would-be murderers -- that its conduct was not, at least in law, different 
from that of a publisher (or anyone else) who delivered Hit Man to a specific 
person or group of persons whom the publisher knew to be interested in 
murder. And even Paladin effectively concedes that it could be liable were 
such a finding permissibly made. Paladin's Memorandum in Support of Summary 
Judgment at 33 n.24.

A conclusion that Paladin directed Hit Man to a discrete group rather than to 
the public at large would be supported, even if not established, by the 
evidence that Hit Man is not generally available or sold to the public from 
the bookshelves of local bookstores, but, rather, is obtainable as a 
practical matter only by catalogue. Paladin Press is a mail order company, 
and for the most part does not sell books through retail outlets. In order to 
procure a copy of Hit Man,

RICE v PALADIN ENTERPRISES

Duncan Frissell