Opinion ID: 622978
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Music Companies' complaint.

Text: East Coast and Hudson first argue that the Music Companies' complaint was insufficient because it did not state a claim of vicarious liability for copyright infringement. See Dream Games of Ariz., Inc. v. PC Onsite, 561 F.3d 983, 995 (9th Cir.2009) (refusing to entertain a theory of secondary liability for copyright infringement when it was not alleged in either the plaintiff's original or amended complaint). The Music Companies' complaint was sufficient. A vicarious infringer profit[s] from direct infringement while declining to exercise a right to stop or limit it. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd., 545 U.S. 913, 930, 125 S.Ct. 2764, 162 L.Ed.2d 781 (2005); see also Twentieth Century Music Corp. v. Aiken, 422 U.S. 151, 157, 95 S.Ct. 2040, 45 L.Ed.2d 84 (1975) (An orchestra or individual instrumentalist or singer who performs a copyrighted musical composition in such a public place without a license is thus clearly an infringer under the [Copyright Act]. The entrepreneur who sponsors such a public performance for profit is also an infringerdirect or contributory.). The Music Companies' complaint contained an adequate statement of the claim of vicarious infringement: it alleged that copyrighted musical compositions were publicly performed at the Long Beach Roscoe's, and pleaded specific facts to raise a plausible inference that East Coast and Hudson exercised control over and financially benefitted from the performance venue. See Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 1951-52, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009).