Opinion ID: 220242
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Public Domain Nature of the Publicity Materials

Text: Because our analysis differs from that of the district court, we find it necessary to determine whether the publicity materials reached the public domain. Whether a work entered the public domain prior to January 1, 1978, the effective date of the 1976 Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. §§ 101 et seq., must be determined according to copyright law as it existed before that date, under the 1909 Copyright Act. See Brown v. Tabb, 714 F.2d 1088, 1090-91 (11th Cir.1983). Under the 1909 Copyright Act, one who created an artistic work held a common law copyright in that work until publication occurred. See Burke v. Nat'l Broad. Co., Inc., 598 F.2d 688, 691 & n. 2 (1st Cir.1979). If the publication complied with the notice requirements of the 1909 Copyright Act, the common law copyright was replaced with a federal statutory copyright, but a publication without the prescribed notice resulted in the forfeiture of any copyright. Data Cash Sys., Inc. v. JS & A Grp., Inc., 628 F.2d 1038, 1042 (7th Cir.1980). In other words, the general rule under the 1909 Copyright Act is that a work published in the United States without the statutorily required copyright notice fell into the public domain, precluding forever any subsequent copyright protection of the published work. Twin Books Corp. v. Walt Disney Co., 83 F.3d 1162, 1165-66 (9th Cir.1996). Warner Bros. concedes that the publicity materials now copied by AVELA were distributed to theaters without the statutorily required notice, but it nevertheless contends that these materials were not injected into the public domain because their distribution was a limited publication. As distinguished from a general publication that results in injection into the public domain, a limited publication is one that occurs under conditions which exclude the presumption that [the work] was intended to be dedicated to the public. Am. Tobacco Co. v. Werckmeister, 207 U.S. 284, 299, 28 S.Ct. 72, 52 L.Ed. 208 (1907), superseded by statute, Copyright Act of 1976, as recognized in Harper & Row Publishers, Inc. v. Nation Enters., 471 U.S. 539, 105 S.Ct. 2218, 85 L.Ed.2d 588 (1985). Courts developed the doctrine of limited publication [t]o lessen the sometimes harsh effect of the rule that publication destroyed common law rights. Brown, 714 F.2d at 1091. Warner Bros. contends that the conditions for a limited publication were satisfied for the movie posters and lobby cards for The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind because those materials were not distributed directly to the general public, but rather were leased solely to theaters under an agreement (the National Screen Agreement) that required the materials to be returned or destroyed after the theater stopped running the subject film. [5] We have held that a publication is general, rather than limited, if the rights-holder demonstrated an express or implied intent to abandon his right to control distribution and reproduction of his work, as determined objectively from the implications of his outward actions to the reasonable outsider. Nucor Corp. v. Tenn. Forging Steel Serv., Inc., 476 F.2d 386, 390 n. 7 (8th Cir.1973) (quoting Edgar H. Wood Assocs., Inc. v. Skene, 347 Mass. 351, 197 N.E.2d 886, 892 (1964)). There is a dearth of Eighth Circuit case law applying this test, and the parties argue this issue under a framework developed by the Ninth Circuit and adopted by several other circuits defining a limited publication as a distribution (1) to a definitely selected class of persons, (2) for a limited purpose, (3) without the right of reproduction, distribution, or sale. See White v. Kimmell, 193 F.2d 744, 746-47 (9th Cir.1952); see also Brown, 714 F.2d at 1091; Data Cash Sys., 628 F.2d at 1042; Burke, 598 F.2d at 692; Am. Visuals Corp. v. Holland, 239 F.2d 740, 744 (2d Cir.1956); 1-4 Melville B. & David Nimmer, Nimmer on Copyright § 4.13 (hereinafter Nimmer on Copyright ). We agree that this test may help to focus the analysis. Based on the record, any reasonable jury would have to conclude that the return or destroy provisions of the National Screen Agreement did not effectively preclude redistribution or sale of the images in the publicity materials made available to theaters for The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind. For example, Leith Adams, Warner Bros.'s expert, conceded that theaters could buy by the thousands handouts and promotional flyers to pass out to the general public. At least some of these handouts and flyers included images of the characters. Exploitation books associated with The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind allowed theaters to select promotional giveaway or sale items for the public, ranging from color-tinted publicity photographs to matchbooks to spare-tire covers. No evidence suggests that theaters were expected to recover these items from the public and return or destroy them. Adams also conceded that in addition to movie posters and lobby cards for the theaters' own premises, theaters could obtain movie posters expressly constructed for posting on telephone poles throughout the theater's local area. When asked if these movie posters generally were returned or destroyed, Adams responded, I don't think so but I don't know. We also note that Loew's initially took steps to obtain a federally registered copyright in some of the still photographs used in publicity materials for The Wizard of Oz, suggesting that Loew's did not expect the National Screen Agreement to preserve its copyrights in such materials. As an additional matter, publicity material images for the films were distributed directly to the general public through newspapers and magazines. As a leading treatise states: An issue of recurring application is publicity photos for motion pictures from the 1920's through 1970's. The films themselves from that era were routinely protected as validly noticed and registered works; but much less care was typically exercised during production and in the publicity office. Often, photos were taken on the set depicting the same stars, wearing the same costumes, appearing in the same scenery, that would later appear in the photoplay, but the photographs were sent off to newspapers before the film's release, in order to generate a buzz about its opening. 1-4 Nimmer on Copyright § 4.13[A][3]. Here, the record includes publicity photographs for The Wizard of Oz that appeared in McCall's magazine, The Saturday Evening Post, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and the Chicago Herald and Examiner before the film was released. It also includes publicity photographs for Gone with the Wind that appeared in the Atlanta Constitution and the Atlanta Journal, and other published material indicating that Gone with the Wind publicity photographs appeared in several magazines in the United States before the film was released. Obviously, in each case, the rights-holder granted the right of reproduction, distribution [and] sale of the subject publicity photographs to each respective newspaper and magazine. White, 193 F.2d at 747. At least one court has held that distribution of promotional photographs to theaters, even under an effective condition that the photographs be returned, is not sufficient to demonstrate a limited publication where the photographs are also distributed for use by newspapers and magazines. See Milton H. Greene Archives, Inc. v. BPI Commc'ns, Inc., 378 F.Supp.2d 1189, 1198-99 (C.D.Cal.2005), aff'd, 320 Fed.Appx. 572 (9th Cir.2009) (unpublished per curiam). [6] Given the undisputed evidence regarding handouts, flyers, giveaway and sale items, and movie posters for telephone poles distributed under the National Screen Agreement (in apparent contravention of its return or destroy provisions), as well as the widespread distribution of many publicity images to newspapers and magazines, the only possible implications of [Loew's] outward actions to the reasonable outsider is that Loew's intended to abandon the right to control reproduction, distribution, and sale of the images in the publicity materials. See Nucor Corp., 476 F.2d at 390 n. 7. In terms of the Ninth Circuit test, the publicity materials simply were not distributed to a definitely selected class of persons without the right of reproduction, distribution, or sale. See White, 193 F.2d at 746-47. To the contrary, the purpose of the distribution of all of these publicity materials was to reach as much of the public as possible. The studio itself happily estimated at the time that over 90 million people would see the advertising campaign for The Wizard of Oz. In practical terms, courts have hesitated to find general publication if to do so would divest the common law right to profit from one's own work, Burke, 598 F.2d at 691, but here it appears Loew's viewed the publicity materials as a tool to maximize profit from the copyrighted films, not as an independent source of revenue. Therefore, we conclude that the publicity materials for The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind, as well as for the Tom & Jerry short films, are in the public domain. [7]