In a case that presented two judges with the thorny question of whether to recuse themselves after they had begun working on the matter, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on Nov. 29 threw out a settlement between freelancers and media companies that reprinted their works in electronic databases.

The circuit ruled 2-1 that Southern District Judge George Daniels did not have jurisdiction to preside over the case because the vast majority of participants in the freelancer class failed to register copyrights in their works.