Educational Publisher Plaintiff and School Defendants Settle Case
Marenem, Inc. v. Springdale Public Schools et al.
We previously reported on this case in 2023 and 2024, regarding a lawsuit by an educational material creator, Marenem, Inc. ("Marenem"), and the alleged illegal copying and distribution of some of their "Secret Story" materials (the "Works") by several school teachers in the Springdale school district ("Springdale"). The teachers created videos with the Works for their students during COVID remote schooling, which were initially only available through a secure LMS. Eventually several of the videos were posted to a public Youtube channel, at which point Marenem discovered the infringement and filed a lawsuit.
The various defendants (Springdale Public Schools, the individual teachers involved, as well as the insurance company that covered the school district at the time of the alleged infringement) filed their responses to the complaint that mainly relied on sovereign immunity as their affirmative defense, as well as fair use in the case of the insurance company. Before any opinion was issued or the case developed further, the parties successfully settled the matter out of court and the court issued an Order of Dismissal.