Opinion ID: 3035537
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The NFL’s Copyright in the Sound Clips

Text: A threshold issue for the NFL’s preemption defense is whether the NFL has a valid copyright in the sound recordings of Facenda’s voice. The NFL notes that it excerpted the sound clips at issue from copyrighted productions of NFL Films. Moreover, the sound clips represent Facenda’s readings of copyrighted NFL scripts, making the clips “derivative works” (of the scripts) in which a distinct copyright exists. See 17 U.S.C. § 106(2) (granting copyright holders the exclusive right to prepare derivative works); id. § 102(a)(7) (allowing copyrights in sound recordings, which are separate and distinct from the copyrights in musical compositions of § 102(a)(2)). Either way, the NFL had the copyright in the sound clips. By using the sound clips of Facenda’s voice in “The Making of Madden NFL 06,” the NFL was exercising its exclusive right to make derivative works of those sound clips under § 106(2). In effect, it was “sampling” itself, making a collage, taking a small piece of an old work and using it in a new work—as when a hip-hop group samples the drum part from James Brown’s “Funky Drummer.” It is well-established that copyrights extend to samples, even brief samples. See, e.g., Grand Upright Music Ltd. v. Warner Bros. Records, Inc., 780 F. Supp. 182, 183 (S.D.N.Y. 1991). For instance, no third party to this case may use those recordings unless a limitation on or exception to the NFL’s § 106 rights applies, such as the fair use doctrine of 17 U.S.C. § 107. See Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, 42 Inc., 510 U.S. 569, 571–72, 579–80 (1994) (holding a parody of Roy Orbison’s “Oh, Pretty Woman” may be a fair use). Thus, the NFL is correct that copyright law, taken in isolation, gives it the exclusive right (absent a limitation or exception) to use the sound recordings of Facenda’s voice in the way that it did. The question for us is how the NFL’s (federal) copyright relates to Facenda’s (state-law) right of publicity. Does the statelaw right of publicity exist irrespective of the federal copyright? Put another way, does federal copyright law preempt the right of publicity claim under Pennsylvania law?