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Humour editor pays damages on Ten years of stolen jokes

Judy Brown, a humour editor who published thousands of jokes from top comedians like Ray Leno and Rita Rudner has settled a copyright infringement case with damages expected to be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Brown was accused of collecting the jokes over ten years and without permission from the authors publishing them in 19 books including "The Funny Pages" and "Funny You Should Know That".

Jay Leno one of the comedians whose jokes were used, said "I thought it was important to make it clear that jokes are protected like any other art form."

The suit was filed between NBC Studios and seven comedians. NBC, Leno and Rudner have said they will donate their settlement to charity. Although no exact details of the damages have been confirmed, Theodore J. Boutrous, Jr., an attorney who represented the comedians and NBC said that the damages would be "hundreds of thousands of dollars."

Brown seemed repentant in a public statement "The best comedians may make comedy seem easy, but I know it takes talent, hard work and careful preparation to make people laugh, that is why I am settling this lawsuit by agreeing never again to publish their jokes without asking their permission to do so."

The settlement seeks to see Brown and her publishers stop producing any of the 19 books to pay damages and to make efforts to have existing copies removed from bookstores.

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