Appellate Opinions Released May 15, 2007

The Wisconsin Supreme Court released its opinion in Zellner v. Cedarburg School District today. A CD was made of copyrighted "adult images" a high school teacher was caught viewing on school computers. The Court held that the teacher had standing to invoke the copyright exception to the Open Records Law, which excludes that material from the definition of "records" that must be released. Unfortunately for Mr. Zellner, the Court also held that the "fair use" exception to copyright infringement brings the images back within the ambit of "records" subject to release. Additionally, the Court held that the images (and a memorandum related to them) did not need to be kept secret because of a statutory exception for information related to a pending disciplinary proceeding.

The Wisconsin Court of Appeals released these opinions today, recommending publication of the following:

Estate of Newgard v. Bank of America (Wisconsin Consumer Act precludes banks from recovering amounts due and owing unless they can produce credit card statements from when the charges were incurred).

State v. Sloan (material originally discovered by a non-government agent at a UPS facility not subject to suppression for lack of a warrant; evidence recovered in a residential search must be suppressed because affidavit in support of the warrant failed to establish necessary nexus between the items sought and the residence searched).