Source: http://openjurist.org/973/f2d/791
Timestamp: 2016-04-29 10:43:52
Document Index: 317154541

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 102', '§ 101', '§ 2', '§ 1', '§ 13', '§ 504', '§ 504', 'art, 744', '§ 109', '§ 109', '§ 109', '§ 27', '§ 109']

973 F2d 791 Los Angeles News Service v. Tullo | OpenJurist
973 F. 2d 791 - Los Angeles News Service v. Tullo HomeFederal Reporter, Second Series 973 F.2d.
973 F2d 791 Los Angeles News Service v. Tullo 973 F.2d 791
1992 Copr.L.Dec. P 26,981, 24 U.S.P.Q.2d 1026,20 Media L. Rep. 1626
LOS ANGELES NEWS SERVICE, Plaintiff-Counter-Defendant-Appellee,Robert Tur, Counter-Defendant-Appellee,v.Frank TULLO; Charles Bickert; Defendants-Appellants,Audio Video Reporting Services; Defendant-Counter-Claimant-Appellant.
Argued and Submitted Oct. 7, 1991.Decided Aug. 27, 1992.
AVRS claims LANS's raw videotapes, as opposed to the edited news stories in which portions of those tapes were combined with other footage, narrative, interview excerpts and graphics to form a television news "package," are not "original works of authorship" and thus do not merit copyright protection under § 102(a) of the Copyright Act of 1976, 17 U.S.C. §§ 101-914. Whether the raw tapes are sufficiently original to merit copyright protection is a mixed question of law and fact that we examine de novo. See Harper House, Inc. v. Thomas Nelson, Inc., 889 F.2d 197, 201 (9th Cir.1989).
Thirty-seven years later, Judge Learned Hand suggested the question left open in Burrow-Giles--whether all photographs are sufficiently original by their nature to merit copyright protection--had been answered in the affirmative by Bleistein v. Donaldson Lithographing Co., 188 U.S. 239, 23 S.Ct. 298, 47 L.Ed. 460 (1903), which held that chromolithographs that depicted real scenes and people, as photographs do, were copyrightable because they were "the personal reaction of an individual upon nature. Personality always contains something unique. It expresses its singularity even in handwriting, and a very modest grade of art has in it something irreducible, which is one man's alone. That something he may copyright...." Id. at 250, 23 S.Ct. at 300. In Jewelers' Circular Publishing Co. v. Keystone Publishing Co., 274 F. 932, 934 (S.D.N.Y.1921), aff'd, 281 F. 83 (2d Cir.1922), Judge Hand said, "Burrow-Giles [Lithographic] Co. v. Sarony ... left open an intimation that some photographs might not be protected.... I think that ... Bleistein v. Donaldson Lithographing Co. ... rules, because no photograph, however simple, can be unaffected by the personal influence of the author, and no two will be absolutely alike."Professor Nimmer's treatise reports that Judge Hand's statement of the law "has become the prevailing view, so that [almost] any ... photograph may claim the necessary originality to support a copyright merely by virtue of the photographers' personal choice of subject matter, angle of photograph, lighting, and determination of the precise time when the photograph is to be taken." 1 Melville B. Nimmer & David Nimmer, Nimmer on Copyright ("Nimmer") § 2.08[E], at 2-126.3 (1992 ed.) (footnote omitted).2 We have stated before that the courts have recognized repeatedly that the creative decisions involved in producing a photograph may render it sufficiently original to be copyrightable and "have carefully delineated selection of subject, posture, background, lighting, and perhaps even perspective alone as protectible elements of a photographer's work." United States v. Hamilton, 583 F.2d 448, 452 (9th Cir.1978); see also Time, Inc. v. Bernard Geis Assocs., 293 F.Supp. 130, 142-43 (S.D.N.Y.1968) (amateur photographer's raw footage of the assassination of President John Kennedy was sufficiently original because of the creative effort involved in selecting type of camera, film, lens, area in which to shoot, time to film, and position of camera).
AVRS's reliance on Cable News Network, Inc. v. Video Monitoring Services of America, Inc. ("CNN"), 940 F.2d 1471, vacated, 949 F.2d 378 (11th Cir.1991), to support its contention that under Feist Publications, Inc. v. Rural Telephone Service Co., Inc., --- U.S. ----, 111 S.Ct. 1282, 113 L.Ed.2d 358 (1991), the videotapes did not possess the required originality, is misplaced.4 Feist stated the "requisite level of creativity is extremely low; even a slight amount will suffice. The vast majority of works make the grade quite easily, as they possess some creative spark, 'no matter how crude, humble or obvious' it might be." Feist, --- U.S. at ----, 111 S.Ct. at 1287 (citation omitted). Feist held only that a "garden-variety" telephone directory listing subscribers alphabetically by surname was not sufficiently original because the selection and arrangement was "entirely typical" and "devoid of even the slightest trace of creativity." Id. --- U.S. at ----, 111 S.Ct. at 1296-97. The Court did not disavow the century-old proposition that photographs may be copyrightable as the original products of creative and artistic decisions; rather, the Court explicitly reaffirmed Burrow-Giles, stating that "[t]he originality requirement articulated [therein] remains the touchstone of copyright protection today." Id., --- U.S. at ----, 111 S.Ct. at 1288.
Copyright law incorporates First Amendment goals by ensuring that copyright protection extends only to the forms in which ideas and information are expressed and not to the ideas and information themselves. "[T]he idea-expression dichotomy ... serves to accommodate the competing interests of copyright and the first amendment. The 'marketplace of ideas' is not limited by copyright because copyright is limited to protection of expression." Sid & Marty Krofft Television Prods., Inc. v. McDonald's Corp. ("Krofft"), 562 F.2d 1157, 1170 (9th Cir.1977); see also Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc. v. Nation Enters., 471 U.S. 539, 556, 105 S.Ct. 2218, 2228, 85 L.Ed.2d 588 (1985) ("copyright's idea/expression dichotomy 'strike[s] a definitional balance between the First Amendment and the Copyright Act by permitting free communication of facts while still protecting an author's expression' " (citation omitted)).
Professor Nimmer has suggested the idea-expression dichotomy and the fair use doctrine may not adequately protect First Amendment interests in some circumstances. 1 Nimmer § 1.10[C], at 1-81. Citing the exclusive photographs of the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War and the Zapruder home movie of the assassination of President John Kennedy as examples, Nimmer proposes that "where the 'idea' of a work contributes almost nothing to the democratic dialogue, and it is only its expression which is meaningful," copyright protection of the expression should be limited in the interest of public access to information necessary to effective public dialogue. Id. at 1-82--1-84. Nimmer explains:
AVRS contends that if the videotapes are copyrightable, AVRS's use of them is protected by the doctrine of fair use, which " 'allows a holder of the privilege to use copyrighted material in a reasonable manner without the consent of the copyright owner.' " Lewis Galoob Toys, Inc. v. Nintendo of America, Inc., 964 F.2d 965, 969 (9th Cir.1992) (citation omitted). Fair use is a mixed question of law and fact. Harper & Row, 471 U.S. at 560, 105 S.Ct. at 2230. Where the district court has found facts sufficient to evaluate each of the statutory factors considered in determining fair use, as did the court here, we may determine as a matter of law whether the challenged use is a fair one. Id.
(1) AVRS argues the district court erred in finding AVRS's use of the tapes was not a fair use because the use was commercial in character. AVRS maintains its clients used the tapes for "research, scholarship and private study," and therefore AVRS's use must be considered fair in light of Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc., 464 U.S. 417, 104 S.Ct. 774, 78 L.Ed.2d 574 (1984).
Harper & Row, 471 U.S. at 561, 105 S.Ct. at 2231 (citations omitted). In any case, AVRS is no more a "news reporter" than the VTR owner who tapes a publicly broadcast movie is a filmmaker.
AVRS's purposes are "unabashedly commercial." Pacific & S. Co., Inc. v. Duncan ("Duncan"), 744 F.2d 1490, 1496 (11th Cir.1984) ("Of course, every commercial exchange of goods and services involves both the giving of the good or service and the taking of the purchase price. The fact that [the defendant] focuses on the giving rather than the taking cannot hide the fact that profit is its primary motive for making the exchange."). In Sony, the Court emphasized that if a VTR owner copied material previously broadcast over the public airwaves for a commercial or profit-making purpose, that use "would presumptively be unfair." Sony, 464 U.S. at 449, 104 S.Ct. at 792. This factor weighs against AVRS.
(2) The second factor bearing on the availability of the fair use exception is the nature of the copyrighted work--here, videotapes of news events. "The law generally recognizes a greater need to disseminate factual works than works of fiction or fantasy." Harper & Row, 471 U.S. at 563, 105 S.Ct. at 2232; see also Sony, 464 U.S. at 454, 104 S.Ct. at 795 (interest in expanding public access to television broadcasting is factor to be considered in determining fair use); Duncan, 744 F.2d at 1497 (the "importance to society of the news could affect the definition of a fair use for a number of reasons"). This factor weighs in AVRS's favor.6
(3) AVRS contends the third factor, the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole, also weighs in its favor because AVRS copied only a small portion of LANS's copyrighted footage: the "clips" included in the television newscasts AVRS recorded. Copying even a small portion of a copyrighted work may exceed the boundaries of fair use if the material taken is the "heart" of the work. See Harper & Row, 471 U.S. at 564-65, 105 S.Ct. at 2232-33 (while words quoted by copyright infringers were "an insubstantial portion" of President Ford's unpublished memoirs, they were the "heart of the book" in that they were among the most "interesting," "moving" and "powerful" passages).
(4) The fourth factor, the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work, "is undoubtedly the single most important element of fair use." Harper & Row, 471 U.S. at 566, 105 S.Ct. at 2233. This factor militates against a finding of fair use if there is a "showing by a preponderance of the evidence that some meaningful likelihood of future harm exists. If the intended use is for commercial gain, that likelihood may be presumed." Sony, 464 U.S. at 451, 104 S.Ct. at 793 (emphasis deleted).
Although the AVRS and LANS markets are not identical--AVRS sells edited news stories copied from television news programs to individuals and businesses while LANS licenses television stations to use its raw footage in producing news programs--there is an overlap between the AVRS market and the potential LANS market. At least some AVRS customers might choose to buy raw footage from LANS if they could not purchase edited news stories from AVRS, and LANS might choose to sell the raw footage to them. Cf. Duncan, 744 F.2d at 1496 ("[The news clipping service] uses the broadcasts for a purpose that [the broadcaster] might use for its own benefit. The fact that [the broadcaster] does not actively market copies of the news programs does not matter, for Section 107 [of the Copyright Act] looks to the 'potential market' in analyzing the effects of an alleged infringement."). This factor also weighs against AVRS.
AVRS contends the district court erred by failing to find LANS was barred from prevailing on its copyright claim because of its "unclean hands." "The application of the unclean hands doctrine raises primarily a question of fact." Dollar Sys., Inc. v. Avcar Leasing Sys., Inc., 890 F.2d 165, 173 (9th Cir.1989). We review factual findings for clear error. Lewis Galoob Toys, at 967.
AVRS maintains LANS should be barred from recovering for AVRS's copyright infringement because LANS induced AVRS to provide LANS with copies of videotapes at issue in this litigation by giving AVRS a check for $346.13 on which LANS then stopped payment. Arguably, this behavior could constitute unclean hands. See 3 Nimmer § 13.09[B], at 13-149--13-150 (defense of unclean hands has been recognized where plaintiff "obtained information as to the nature of defendant's work through unfair means"). However, the defense is rarely effective, id. at 13-148, and is properly denied when the "plaintiff's transgression is of an ... inconsequential nature," id. at 13-150 (footnote omitted). The district court did not err in concluding LANS's behavior was not sufficiently serious to bar it from recovery.
The district court had discretion to grant the injunction LANS requested but had no obligation to do so after LANS abandoned its request. Cf. Universal City Studios, Inc. v. Sony Corp. of America, 659 F.2d 963, 976 (9th Cir.1981) (citing Nimmer for proposition it would be abuse of discretion to deny plaintiff's request for permanent injunction after liability and threat of continuing infringement had been established), rev'd on other grounds, 464 U.S. 417, 104 S.Ct. 774, 78 L.Ed.2d 574 (1984). Neither was the court required to compel LANS to grant AVRS license to copy LANS's copyrighted material nor to protect AVRS from the possibility that without the notification provision AVRS sought, it might inadvertently copy LANS's copyrighted material and thus become liable for further substantial damages. See Universal City Studios, 659 F.2d at 976 ("In fashioning relief, the district court should not be overly concerned with the prospective harm to [defendant]. A defendant has no right to expect a return on investment from activities which violate the copyright laws. Once a determination has been made that an infringement is involved, the continued profitability of [defendant's] business[ ] is of secondary concern.").9
AVRS claims that because it had a good faith belief in the legality of copying the newscasts containing LANS's copyrighted material, the district court erred by awarding more than minimal damages. AVRS relies on 17 U.S.C. § 504(c)(2), which provides that "[i]n a case where the infringer sustains the burden of proving, and the court finds, that such infringer was not aware and had no reason to believe that his or her acts constituted an infringement of copyright, the court i[n] its discretion may reduce the award of statutory damages to a sum of not less than $200." The district court did not find AVRS "had no reason to believe" its acts did not constitute infringement. Even if the court had so found, § 504(c)(2) does not mandate a nominal award. On this record, the district court did not abuse its discretion by declining to reduce the award.10
Finally, AVRS argues the district court erred by admitting a videotape of the train wreck into evidence. "[E]videntiary rulings are reviewed for abuse of discretion and will not be reversed absent prejudice." Roberts v. College of the Desert, 870 F.2d 1411, 1418 (9th Cir.1988). AVRS argues it was prejudiced because there would have been no evidence that AVRS infringed LANS's copyright to the footage of the train wreck without the tape. AVRS is incorrect. The videographer who shot the footage testified at trial that she saw her video broadcast on a local channel; another LANS employee testified the station that broadcast on that channel had been licensed to use the footage; and AVRS's log sheets showed AVRS sold a copy of that station's newscast from the day in question to the Southern Pacific Transportation Company, whose train derailed in the wreck. This evidence was sufficient to permit the trier of fact to infer AVRS sold a copy of a news program containing LANS's copyrighted footage of the train wreck without LANS's consent, thus infringing LANS's copyright. Assuming error, AVRS was not prejudiced.
We do not imply the mere time and effort LANS invested in making the videotapes entitle the tapes to copyright protection; originality in the work product is required. See Feist Publications, Inc. v. Rural Tel. Serv. Co., Inc., --- U.S. ----, ---- - ----, 111 S.Ct. 1282, 1291-92, 113 L.Ed.2d 358 (1991) (rejecting the "sweat of the brow" doctrine that held mere industrious compilation deserving of copyright even if the compilation was not original)
CNN is not precedential even in the Eleventh Circuit since it was vacated for reconsideration by the en banc court. See Ierna v. Arthur Murray Int'l, Inc., 833 F.2d 1472, 1475 n. 4 (11th Cir.1987) (opinion vacated on rehearing is not binding precedent). The en banc court dismissed the appeal. Cable News Network, Inc. v. Video Monitoring Servs. of America, Inc., 959 F.2d 188 (11th Cir.1992) (en banc) (district court had entered permanent injunction which was not before the court so appeal was dismissed as it would not be judicious to grant relief sought)
No court has adopted Nimmer's proposal. Those that have discussed it have found it inapplicable to the facts before them. See, e.g., Krofft, 562 F.2d at 1171 & n. 16 (defendants infringed by producing "McDonaldland" television commercials substantially similar to plaintiffs' "H.R. Pufnstuf" children's television show; court found there "may be certain rare instances when first amendment considerations will operate to limit copyright protection for graphic expressions of newsworthy events" but Nimmer exception was inapplicable because plaintiffs' work did not fit Nimmer's definition of a news photograph); Roy Export Co. Estab. of Vaduz v. Columbia Broadcasting Sys., Inc., 672 F.2d 1095, 1100 (2d Cir.1982) (defendant CBS infringed by including copyrighted film clips from several Charlie Chaplin movies in a television biography of the comedian; court stated "even if we were inclined to recognize some narrow exception [such as the one Nimmer suggests] on extraordinary facts, we would still conclude that the facts in this case could not support the invention or application of even a limited privilege" because the "showing of copyrighted films was not essential to CBS's news report of Charlie Chaplin's death or to its assessment of his place in history"); Iowa State Univ. Research Found., Inc. v. American Broadcasting Cos., Inc., 621 F.2d 57, 61 n. 6 (2d Cir.1980) (defendant ABC infringed by including in its film biography of an Olympic wrestler portions of an earlier film biography of the wrestler produced by two university students; court recognized that in the "almost unique instance" of the Zapruder film, "it is at least arguable that the informational value of that film cannot be separated from the photographer's expression" but "such situations are rare" and the student film at issue "does not fall within this limited category"); Pacific & S. Co., Inc. v. Duncan, 572 F.Supp. 1186, 1193 (N.D.Ga.1983) (defendant, a video monitoring service like AVRS, infringed television station's copyright in a news feature about a "fitness trail" at a local college; court found Nimmer's hypothesis "theoretically provocative" but inapplicable because the "soft news" story, "though informational, hardly fits in a category with film of the My Lai massacre" and because both the story and the trail itself were available for viewing), aff'd in part and rev'd in part, 744 F.2d 1490 (11th Cir.1984)
AVRS cites the Supreme Court's statement in Sony that "[c]opying a news broadcast may have a stronger claim to fair use than copying a motion picture," 464 U.S. at 455 n. 40, 104 S.Ct. at 795, to support its contention that the nature of the copyrighted work at issue in this case outweighs the commercial use to which it was put. AVRS takes the Sony Court's statement out of context. The Court was explaining that some copyrights are more valuable because they "govern material with broad potential secondary markets. Such material may well have a broader claim to protection because of the greater potential for commercial harm." Id. Thus, "[c]opying a news broadcast may have a stronger claim to fair use than copying a motion picture" because the potential market for copies of news broadcasts is not as great as that for copies of movies. This discussion concerns not the second factor, the nature of the copyrighted work, but the fourth factor, the effect upon the potential market for the copyrighted work
AVRS argues that because its service is essentially one of time-shifting, the third factor would not count against a finding of fair use even if AVRS had copied all of LANS's copyrighted footage of the train wreck and plane crash. AVRS relies on the statement in Sony that because "time-shifting merely enables a viewer to see [a televised copyrighted audiovisual work] which he had been invited to witness in its entirety free of charge, the fact that the entire work is reproduced does not have its ordinary effect of militating against a finding of fair use." Sony, 464 U.S. at 449-50, 104 S.Ct. at 792 (citation omitted). Again, AVRS's reliance on Sony is misplaced. While a viewer is "invited to witness [a telecast program] in its entirety free of charge" and may therefore do so at a time the viewer finds convenient, the viewer is not invited to sell copies of the program
AVRS does not qualify for the exemption from liability provided by 17 U.S.C. § 109(a), which allows the lawful owner of a copy of a copyrighted work to sell the copy. AVRS did not purchase from LANS the copies of the tapes AVRS sold, and the television stations that broadcast the tapes were only licensed to use them and could not authorize AVRS to sell them. See 17 U.S.C. § 109(d) (privilege of selling copy does not "extend to any person who has acquired possession of the copy ... from the copyright owner, by rental, lease, loan, or otherwise, without acquiring ownership of it"); Duncan, 744 F.2d at 1494 n. 6 (for purposes of 17 U.S.C. § 109, the defendant video news monitoring service "cannot be considered a newspaper clipping service because it does not purchase the copy that it sells to its clients"); see also United States v. Wise, 550 F.2d 1180, 1190-91 (9th Cir.1977) (for purposes of 17 U.S.C. § 27, predecessor to 17 U.S.C. § 109, theaters granted license to exhibit films did not own the films and so could not lawfully have sold them)