Opinion ID: 2655176
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Authorship

Text: Like the work requirement, the Copyright Act also premises copyright protection on authorship. 17 U.S.C. § 102(a). Authorship is also a constitutional copyright requirement. See U.S. Const. Art. I, § 8, cl. 8; Burrow-Giles Lithographic Co. v. Sarony, 111 U.S. 53, 56 (1884). Aalmuhammed v. Lee is the most relevant case in this circuit on the question of authorship. 202 F.3d 1227 (9th Cir. 2000). Though the Aalmuhammed court discussed authorship in the context of joint authors of a film (which Garcia does not claim to be), it articulated general principles of authorship that assist in analyzing Garcia’s interest in her acting performance.3 3 Furthermore, Garcia’s interest in her acting performance may best be analyzed as a joint work with Youssef, considering she relied on Youssef’s script, equipment, and direction. See 17 U.S.C. § 101 (“A ‘joint work’ is a work prepared by two or more authors with the intention that 24 GARCIA V. GOOGLE, INC. The Aalmuhammed court explained that “[t]he word [author] is traditionally used to mean the originator or the person who causes something to come into being.” Id. at 1232. In other words, the author is the “person with creative control.” Id. Thus, “an author ‘superintends’ the work by exercising control.” Id. at 1234 (quoting Burrow-Giles, 111 U.S. at 61) (alteration omitted). Another framing by the court defined an author as “‘he to whom anything owes its origin.’” Id. at 1233 (quoting Burrow-Giles, 111 U.S. at 58). An author might also be “‘the inventive or master mind’ who ‘creates, or gives effect to the idea.’” Id. at 1234 (quoting Burrow-Giles, 111 U.S. at 61). Indeed, authorship “requires more than a minimal creative or original contribution to the work.” Id. at 1233 (citing Burrow-Giles, 111 U.S. at 58) (emphasis added).4 These principles comport with the “general rule,” that “the author is the party who actually creates the work, that is, the person who translates an idea into a fixed, tangible expression entitled to copyright protection.” Commty. for Creative Non-Violence v. Reid, 490 U.S. 730, 737 (1989). In concluding that Aalmuhammed was not a joint author of the film, Malcolm X, the court found that he (1) “did not at any time have superintendence of the work,” (2) “was not the person ‘who . . . actually formed the picture by putting the persons in position, and arranging the place,” (3) could not “benefit” the work “in the slightest unless [the director] chose to accept [his recommendations],” and (4) made “valuable their contributions be merged into inseparable or interdependent parts of a unitary whole.”). 4 The majority opinion cannot coexist with this statement. See maj. op. at 8. GARCIA V. GOOGLE, INC. 25 contributions to the movie,” but that alone was “not enough for co-authorship of a joint work.” Aalmuhammed, 202 F.3d at 1235. Garcia’s contribution is less significant than Aalmuhammed’s. She conceded in her complaint and affidavit that she had no creative control over the script or her performance. Youssef provided the script, the equipment, and the direction. As a result, Garcia was not the originator of ideas or concepts. She simply acted out others’ ideas or script. Her brief appearance in the film, even if a valuable contribution to the film, does not make her an author. Indeed, it is difficult to understand how she can be considered an “inventive or master mind” of her performance under these facts. The majority dismisses Aalmuhammed as inapposite, instead bolstering its conclusion with reference to acting manuals and treatises. See maj. op. at 8–9. In so doing, it goes too far in attempting to distinguish Aalmuhammed. First, the Aalmuhammed court articulated general principles of authorship that it pulled from the Supreme Court case, Burrow-Giles Lithographic Co. v. Sarony, 111 U.S. 53 (1884). See, e.g., Aalmuhammed, 202 F.3d at 1233 (“BurrowGiles is still good law. . . .”). Burrow-Giles has nothing to do with joint works; instead, the Court interpreted “author” as featured in Article I, Section 8, Clause 8 of the U.S. Constitution. See 111 U.S. at 56. Second, the majority’s one quotation from Aalmuhammed, maj. op. at 8, is taken out of context. The very next line in that opinion makes clear that copyright protection is premised on authorship, whether the work is joint or otherwise: 26 GARCIA V. GOOGLE, INC. We hold that authorship is required under the statutory definition of a joint work, and that authorship is not the same thing as making a valuable and copyrightable contribution. We recognize that a contributor of an expression may be deemed to be the “author” of that expression for purposes of determining whether it is independently copyrightable. Aalmuhammed, 202 F.3d at 1232. Finally, Section 102(a) of the Copyright Act and Article I, Section 8, Clause 8 of the U.S. Constitution both premise copyright protection on authorship. Therefore, not only does the majority decline to apply the most relevant precedent in this circuit on the question before it, it also reads the authorship requirement out of the Copyright Act and the Constitution.5 Even the commentators agree that Aalmuhammed not only applies to Garcia’s claim, but also forecloses her realization of a copyrightable interest in her acting performance. See, e.g., Dougherty, Not a Spike Lee Joint?, 49 UCLA L. Rev. at 306 (“Under the judicially enhanced joint work requirements,” an actress’s performance would be “physically inseparable from other cinematic contributions.” (citing Aalmuhammed, 202 F.3d at 1232)); Lee, Entertainment and Intellectual Property Law § 12:7 (2013) (“Under [Aalmuhammed], . . . individual contributors will rarely qualify as joint authors”). 5 The majority’s sole reliance on Feist Publications to conclude that an acting performance is copyrightable, maj. op. at 8–9, gives insufficient weight to the constitutional and statutory authorship requirement. In Feist Publications, the specific question was not of authorship but of originality. See 499 U.S. at 347. GARCIA V. GOOGLE, INC. 27 The majority lauds an actress’s creative role in a film, maj. op. at 8, but the practical impact of its decision must not be ignored. Garcia’s role in the film is minimal. Yet the majority concludes that she somehow created a work Congress intended to protect under the Copyright Act. Considering the number of contributors who inject the same or a greater amount of creativity into a film, the majority’s omission of any inquiry into authorship indeed creates “an impenetrable thicket of copyright.” Maj. op. at 11. Meanwhile, though Aalmuhammed’s interpretation of the Copyright Act has been debated in academic circles, “it adopts a standard that promotes clarity in the motion picture industry.” Lee, Entertainment and Intellectual Property Law § 12:7. Because Garcia does not qualify as an author under Aalmuhammed, the law and facts do not clearly favor protecting her acting performance under the Copyright Act.