Opinion ID: 610561
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Copyright Liability

Text: 8 Initially, we note some confusion in TPP's identification of the works alleged to be infringed. The complaint alleges copying of the Program, a phrase used in the complaint to mean the television series entitled 'Twin Peaks.'  There is no claim in the complaint that the videotapes of the episodes as televised were ever registered. Judge Martin's opinion granting summary judgment found infringement of the copyright in the teleplays (scripts), but the injunction prohibits infringing the copyrights in the program. At oral argument in this Court, in response to a question, TPP said that copyright registrations had been obtained only for the teleplays. However, in a post-argument submission, TPP sought to correct that response. TPP asserted that a copyright registration had been obtained for the script of the first episode, that copyright registrations had been obtained for the televised videotapes of the seven subsequent episodes, and that a separate copyright registration had later been obtained for the televised videotape of the first episode. As the ensuing discussion reveals, our disposition of the copyright issues is ultimately unaffected whether TPP's registrations apply to the teleplays, to the televised episodes, or, as alleged for the first episode, to both the teleplay and the televised episode.
9 PIL first makes several related attacks on the District Court's determination that, at least absent a fair use or First Amendment defense, PIL infringed TPP's copyrights. To make out a prima facie case of copyright liability, the copyright holder must prove ownership of a valid copyright, and ... copying of constituent elements of the work that are original. Feist Publications, Inc. v. Rural Telephone Service Co., 499 U.S. 340, ----, 111 S.Ct. 1282, 1296, 113 L.Ed.2d 358 (1991). The plaintiff may establish copying either by direct evidence or by showing that the defendant had access to the plaintiff's work and that the two works are substantially similar. See Novelty Textile Mills, Inc. v. Joan Fabrics Corp., 558 F.2d 1090, 1092 (2d Cir.1977). 1 PIL contends that the District Court erred in finding that PIL had access to the teleplays, that substantial similarity existed between the Book and the teleplays, and that the Book was a derivative work of the teleplays. 10 1. Access. PIL argues that because there is no evidence that it had access to the teleplays, TPP's infringement claim fails as a matter of law. Yet PIL has conceded that it had access to the broadcast programs, and does not dispute that the broadcast programs contained virtually all of the protected expression in the teleplays. In isolated instances, dialogue quoted in the Book varies slightly from dialogue as set forth in the teleplays, presumably resulting from variations that occurred in the course of making the television programs, but these instances are insignificant. One who views a performance of a copyrighted work and copies expression contained in that work may be found to have infringed. See 1 Melville B. Nimmer & David Nimmer, Nimmer on Copyright § 2.03[C], at 2-32 (1992) (hereafter Nimmer). In the circumstances of this case, we hold that PIL's access to the televised programs serves as the functional equivalent of access to the protectable content of the teleplays. Thus, if, as the District Court thought, TPP's registrations applied to the teleplays, access was adequately shown. Alternatively, if, as TPP now alleges, registrations were obtained for the televised episodes, access is undisputed. 11 2. Substantial similarity. PIL next argues that the District Court erroneously applied a literal similarity test instead of a substantial similarity test in concluding that the Book copied the teleplays. We find no error. PIL fails to recognize that the concept of similarity embraces not only global similarities in structure and sequence, but localized similarity in language. In both cases, the trier of fact must determine whether the similarities are sufficient to qualify as substantial. See 3 Nimmer § 13.03[A], at 13-28 to 13-29 (1992) (substantial similarity can take the form of fragmented literal similarity or comprehensive nonliteral similarity). In this case, two chapters of the Book (chapters 3 and 7) consist of extensive direct quotations from the teleplays. Indeed, PIL concedes that 89 lines of dialogue were taken. TPP claims that a far greater amount was taken. But even on PIL's concession, the District Court was entitled to find that the identity of 89 lines of dialogue between the works constituted substantial similarity. See Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc. v. Nation Enterprises, 471 U.S. 539, 548, 105 S.Ct. 2218, 2224, 85 L.Ed.2d 588 (1985) (finding substantial similarity where defendant's work excerpted 300-400 words including some uncopyrightable material). 12 Moreover, while the District Court confined its inquiry to literal similarity, we have little doubt that the record supports a finding of substantial similarity through comprehensive nonliteral similarity. Chapter 3 of the Book is essentially a detailed recounting of the first eight episodes of the series. Every intricate plot twist and element of character development appear in the Book in the same sequence as in the teleplays. The elaborate recounting of plot details consumes 46 pages of Chapter 3. The degree of detail is illustrated by excerpts set out in the margin. 2 13 3. Infringement of the right to make derivative works. PIL further contends that the District Court erred in finding that the Book infringed not only rights in the teleplays but also the right to make derivative works of the teleplays. The finding that the Book was a derivative work would seem unnecessary to the finding of prima facie infringement. See 2 Nimmer § 8.09[A], at 8-114 (right to make derivative works is completely superfluous, since infringement of the adaptation right necessarily infringes the reproduction right or the performance right). Nevertheless, we believe the District Court was correct in determining that the Book constituted a derivative work[ ] based upon the copyrighted work. 17 U.S.C. § 106(2) (1988). The Book contains a substantial amount of material from the teleplays, transformed from one medium into another. See Rogers v. Koons, 751 F.Supp. 474, 477 (S.D.N.Y.1990), aff'd, 960 F.2d 301 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 113 S.Ct. 365, 121 L.Ed.2d 278 (1992).
14 The central issue on the copyright claim is the fair use defense. This long-standing doctrine tempers the protection of copyright by allowing an author to use a limited amount of copyrighted material under some circumstances. Since 1978, the doctrine has been codified in section 107 of the Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. § 107 (1988 & Supp. III 1991), which provides that the fair use of a copyrighted work, ... for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching ..., scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether a use is fair, a court is to consider four enumerated factors, see id. § 107(1)-(4), 3 although these factors are non-exclusive, see Harper & Row, 471 U.S. at 560, 105 S.Ct. at 2230. 15 Judge Martin applied each of the four statutory factors and found that all of them favored TPP. He thought that the Book was not entitled to favorable consideration as having either an educational purpose or a character as commentary, that the teleplays were creative works entitled to heightened protection, that substantial copyrighted material was taken, and that the Book competed with books currently licensed by TPP as well as possible future derivative works. Because [f]air use is a mixed question of law and fact, Harper & Row, 471 U.S. at 560, 105 S.Ct. at 2230, the District Court's conclusion is open to full review on appeal, New Era Publications International, ApS v. Carol Publishing Group, 904 F.2d 152, 155 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 498 U.S. 921, 111 S.Ct. 297, 112 L.Ed.2d 251 (1990), although subsidiary findings of fact will be upheld unless clearly erroneous, see Fed.R.Civ.P. 52(a). 16 We agree with the appellants that the Book serves one or more of the non-exclusive purposes that section 107 identifies as examples of purposes for which a protected fair use may be made. See Harper & Row, 471 U.S. at 561, 105 S.Ct. at 2231. Though it might be extravagant to consider the Book a work of research or scholarship, it is surely a work of comment, and perhaps has some claim to criticism and news reporting. It is a work of and about pop culture, but that does not remove it from the scope of section 107. Courts must be alert to the risk of permitting subjective judgments about quality to tilt the scales on which the fair use balance is made. A comment about a television program is no less entitled to the defense of fair use because its subject is a program of mass appeal and the author aims his comment at a lowbrow audience. A comment is as eligible for fair use protection when it concerns Masterpiece Theater and appears in the New York Review of Books as when it concerns As the World Turns and appears in Soap Opera Digest. And the defense will be available whether the comment makes some erudite point appreciated mainly by students of literature or a more prosaic point of interest to average television viewers. The issue in either case will ultimately be whether the comment, in borrowing the protected expression of the original work, does so for purposes that advance the interests sought to be promoted by the copyright law. Determination of that issue turns on careful consideration of the four statutory factors. 17 1. Purpose and character of the use. The District Court's analysis of purpose and character was limited to a determination that PIL's purpose was commercial and not educational. Though we ultimately assess the first factor as favoring TPP, a more extended analysis is warranted. 18 Purpose in fair use analysis is not an all-or-nothing matter. The issue is not simply whether a challenged work serves one of the non-exclusive purposes identified in section 107, such as comment or criticism, but whether it does so to an insignificant or a substantial extent. The weight ascribed to the purpose factor involves a more refined assessment than the initial, fairly easy decision that a work serves a purpose illustrated by the categories listed in section 107. 19 The statutory language of the first factor plainly assigns a higher value to a use that serves nonprofit educational purposes than to one of a commercial nature. Yet we do not think that an author's commercial purpose in writing a book precludes a finding that his particular use of a prior author's protected expression serves a purpose that weighs favorably on the fair use scales. Most publishers of traditional educational works hope to make a profit, and in many cases, including this one, publishers of traditional commercial work have at least the pretense and often the reality of enlightening the public. See Salinger v. Random House, Inc., 811 F.2d 90, 96 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 890, 108 S.Ct. 213, 98 L.Ed.2d 177 (1987). 20 We have found fair use in works that are plainly commercial. See Consumers Union of United States, Inc. v. General Signal Corp., 724 F.2d 1044, 1049 (2d Cir.1983) (advertisement disclosing Consumer Reports recommendation), reh'g denied, 730 F.2d 47 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 823, 105 S.Ct. 100, 83 L.Ed.2d 45 (1984); Warner Bros., Inc. v. American Broadcasting Companies, Inc., 720 F.2d 231, 242 (2d Cir.1983) (television series parodying Superman); Elsmere Music, Inc. v. National Broadcasting Co., 623 F.2d 252, 253 n. 1 (2d Cir.1980) (Saturday Night Live skit parodying I Love New York song); Berlin v. E.C. Publications, Inc., 329 F.2d 541, 544-45 (2d Cir.) (Mad Magazine parodies of Irving Berlin songs), cert. denied, 379 U.S. 822, 85 S.Ct. 46, 13 L.Ed.2d 33 (1964). But see Consumers Union, 730 F.2d at 48 (Oakes, J., dissenting from denial of rehearing in banc) (contending that advertising use is never proper purpose). However, we have also rejected a fair use defense for works that could be characterized as commercial exploitation. See Iowa State University Research Foundation, Inc. v. American Broadcasting Companies, Inc., 621 F.2d 57, 61 (2d Cir.1980) (ABC telecasts containing portions of film on wrestler were commercial exploitation); Meeropol v. Nizer, 560 F.2d 1061, 1069 (2d Cir.1977) (summary judgment inappropriate since book containing Rosenberg letters could constitute commercial exploitation), cert. denied, 434 U.S. 1013, 98 S.Ct. 727, 54 L.Ed.2d 756 (1978). Whether exploitation is an analytically useful term or only a label attached to works deemed not protected by the fair use defense is debatable. We have been more solicitous of the fair use defense in works, which though intended to be profitable, aspired to serve broader public purposes. See Wright v. Warner Books, Inc., 953 F.2d 731, 736-37 (2d Cir.1991) (biography); New Era Publications International, ApS v. Carol Publishing Group, 904 F.2d at 156-57 (biography); Maxtone-Graham v. Burtchaell, 803 F.2d 1253, 1260-62 (2d Cir.1986) (scholarly book on attitudes toward abortion), cert. denied, 481 U.S. 1059, 107 S.Ct. 2201, 95 L.Ed.2d 856 (1987); Rosemont Enterprises, Inc. v. Random House, Inc., 366 F.2d 303, 307-09 (2d Cir.1966) (biography), cert. denied, 385 U.S. 1009, 87 S.Ct. 714, 17 L.Ed.2d 546 (1967). 21 PIL's use of the protected expression in the teleplays consists primarily of summarizing in great detail the plots of the first eight episodes. Inevitably, some identification of the subject matter of a writing must occur before any useful comment may be made about it, and it is not uncommon for works serving a fair use purpose to give at least a brief indication of the plot. Works of criticism, teaching, and news reporting customarily do so. In identifying plot, the author of the second work may or may not be said to have made what Judge Leval has usefully called a transformative use. See Pierre N. Leval, Toward a Fair Use Standard, 103 Harv.L.Rev. 1105, 1111 (1990). Such use would occur, for example, if a plot was briefly described for purposes of adding significant criticism or comment about the author's plotting technique. 22 In the pending case, PIL's detailed report of the plots goes far beyond merely identifying their basic outline for the transformative purposes of comment or criticism. What PIL has done is simply to recount for its readers precisely the plot details of each teleplay. Whether such a detailed summary serves a purpose that weighs in favor of fair use requires some consideration of a genre often called abridgments. 23 Recognized in the Copyright Act as a form of derivative work, see 17 U.S.C. § 101 (1988), an abridgment is a condensation; contraction. An epitome or compendium of another and larger work, wherein the principal ideas of the larger work are summarily contained. 1 Bouvier's Law Dictionary 91 (3d rev. 1914). Interestingly, the origin of the fair use doctrine is closely connected to abridgments, and early cases went so far as to suggest that an abridgment always constitutes fair use, at least one that is a real and fair abridgment displaying the invention, learning, and judgment of the abridger, and not merely an instance of a work that has been colourably shortened. See Gyles v. Wilcox, 26 Eng.Rep. 489, 490, 2 Atk. 141, 143 (1740) (No. 130). 24 The leading early American decision on the fair use defense, Folsom v. Marsh, 9 F.Cas. 342 (C.C.D.Mass.1841), concerned the publication of George Washington's letters in a scholarly work. Justice Story wrote that a fair and bona fide abridgment of an original work, is not a piracy of the copyright of the author, and that to constitute an abridgment, the second work must contain real, substantial condensation of the materials, and intellectual labor and judgment bestowed thereon; and not merely the facile use of the scissors; or extracts of the essential parts, constituting the chief value of the original work. Id. at 345. In concluding, with an expression of regret, that the copyright in Washington's letters had been infringed, Justice Story noted that [i]f it had been the case of a fair and bona fide abridgment of the work of the plaintiffs, it might have admitted of a very different consideration. Id. at 349. 25 Despite these historically interesting suggestions, it is no longer the law that a real and fair abridgment is always fair use. As early as 1911, the Circuit Court for the Southern District of New York indicated in dictum its readiness to enjoin an abridgment of a copyrighted work. In declining to issue a preliminary injunction against publication of defendant's book Opera Stories, which included very brief summaries of two of plaintiff's copyrighted operas, the Court relied on the fact that the summaries gave only a vague, fragmentary and superficial idea of the plot and of the characters, G. Ricordi & Co. v. Mason, 201 F. 182, 182 (C.C.S.D.N.Y.1911), aff'd, 210 F. 277 (2d Cir.1913), and further indicated that 26 [i]f this case involved an abridgment as that word is ordinarily understood, I should be inclined to take a different view of this motion. The defendants' story, however, is not such an abridgment. The abridgments which have been condemned by the courts involve colorable shortening of the original text, where immaterial incidents are omitted and voluminous dissertations are cut down, but where the characters, the plot, the language and the ideas of the author are pirated. 27 Id. at 183 (emphasis in original). See also G. Ricordi & Co. v. Mason, 201 F. 184 (S.D.N.Y.1912) (denying permanent injunction), aff'd, 210 F. 277 (2d Cir.1913). One of the leading commentators on the fair use doctrine attributes the condemnation of abridgments to the adoption of the 1909 Copyright Act, which abolished the right to make unconsented fair abridgments. William F. Patry, The Fair Use Privilege in Copyright Law 27 (1985); see also id. at 26 (expressing disagreement with early rule permitting abridgments). 28 The current Copyright Act confers no absolute right on non-copyright holders to make abridgments. The Act defines a derivative work to include an abridgment, 17 U.S.C. § 101 (1988), and gives the copyright holder the exclusive right to prepare derivative works based upon the copyrighted work, id. § 106(2) (1988 & Supp. III 1991). An abridgment of a copyrighted work is thus likely to be found to be prima facie infringing. Where, as here, the abridgment serves no transformative function and elaborates in detail far beyond what is required to serve any legitimate purpose, the first factor cannot be weighted in favor of the fair use defense. 29 2. Nature of the copyrighted work. PIL attacks only briefly the District Court's finding that, because the copyrighted work is a work of fiction, the second factor favors TPP. PIL seems to contend that the magnitude of public reaction to the televised programs made the entire content of the teleplays a fact that could be reported and analyzed. Yet the second factor, if it favors anything, must favor a creative and fictional work, no matter how successful. See Stewart v. Abend, 495 U.S. 207, 237-38, 110 S.Ct. 1750, 1768-69, 109 L.Ed.2d 184 (1990); Harper & Row, 471 U.S. at 563, 105 S.Ct. at 2133; 3 Nimmer § 13.05[A], at 13-102.22 & n. 28.7. 30 3. Amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole. PIL erroneously claims that the District Court made no finding of substantiality in relation to the teleplays or the television series as a whole. Brief for Appellant at 26. In fact, the District Court found that the Book provides synopses for several episodes, lifting many parts verbatim from the script. Even without this finding, the District Court's determination that the Book was substantially similar to the teleplays so as to be prima facie infringing should suffice for a determination that the third fair use factor favors the plaintiff, whether the copyrighted works are the teleplays or the videotapes. See 3 Nimmer § 13.05[A], at 13-102.24 to 13-102.25 (third prong of fair use inquiry is redundant). 31 PIL also argues that its taking is not great in light of the fact that critical commentary often requires lifting large portions of the original work. Even if that is sometimes so, it does not mean that the third factor favors commenters regardless of the amount of copying. What PIL lifted was plainly substantial in relation to the copyrighted works as a whole. 32 4. Effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work. The fourth factor, market effect, is undoubtedly the single most important element of fair use. Harper & Row, 471 U.S. at 566, 105 S.Ct. at 2233. In evaluating this factor, a court must consider not only the primary market for the copyrighted work, but the current and potential market for derivative works. See id. at 568, 105 S.Ct. at 2234; Lewis Galoob Toys, Inc. v. Nintendo of America, Inc., 964 F.2d 965, 971 (9th Cir.1992), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 113 S.Ct. 1582, 123 L.Ed.2d 149 (1993). We believe that application of this factor presents a fairly close question, but ultimately we agree with the District Court that the factor favors TPP. 33 In the cases where we have found the fourth factor to favor a defendant, the defendant's work filled a market niche that the plaintiff simply had no interest in occupying. Copyright holders rarely write parodies of their own works, see, e.g., Warner Bros., 720 F.2d at 242-43, or write reviews of them, see Harper & Row, 471 U.S. at 584, 105 S.Ct. at 2242, and are even less likely to write new analyses of their underlying data from the opposite political perspective, see, e.g., Maxtone-Graham, 803 F.2d at 1263-64. On the other hand, it is a safe generalization that copyright holders, as a class, wish to continue to sell the copyrighted work and may also wish to prepare or license such derivative works as book versions or films. In this case, the Book may interfere with the primary market for the copyrighted works and almost certainly interferes with legitimate markets for derivative works. It is possible that a person who had missed an episode of Twin Peaks would find reading the Book an adequate substitute, and would not need to rent the videotape of that episode in order to enjoy the next one. See Wainwright Securities, Inc. v. Wall Street Transcript Corp., 558 F.2d 91, 96 (2d Cir.1977) (defendant's abstracts filled demand for plaintiff's financial reports), cert. denied, 434 U.S. 1014, 98 S.Ct. 730, 54 L.Ed.2d 759 (1978). In the derivative market, TPP has already licensed at least two Twin Peaks books (The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer and The Autobiography of F.B.I. Special Agent Dale Cooper: My Life, My Tapes), and states that it plans to license more, or at least claims to have had such plans before the show's popularity subsided. A copyright holder's protection of its market for derivative works of course cannot enable it to bar publication of works of comment, criticism, or news reporting whose commercial success is enhanced by the wide appeal of the copyrighted work. The author of Twin Peaks cannot preserve for itself the entire field of publishable works that wish to cash in on the Twin Peaks phenomenon. But it may rightfully claim a favorable weighting of the fourth fair use factor with respect to a book that reports the plot in such extraordinary detail as to risk impairment of the market for the copyrighted works themselves or derivative works that the author is entitled to license. 34 Though appellants may be correct in arguing that works like theirs provide helpful publicity and thereby tend to confer an economic benefit on the copyright holder, we nevertheless conclude that the Book competes in markets in which TPP has a legitimate interest, and that the fourth factor at least slightly favors TPP. 35 5. Aggregate fair use assessment. While the four statutory factors are non-exclusive, we do not believe that the various other factors discussed by the parties merit discussion in light of our agreement with the District Court that all of the statutory factors favor TPP. We conclude that the Court's rejection of the fair use defense was entirely correct.
36 PIL contends briefly that the First Amendment is broader than the fair use defense and protects its publication of the Book. PIL neither describes the contours of this purported defense nor makes any effort to distinguish our numerous cases that have held that, except perhaps in an extraordinary case, the fair use doctrine encompasses all claims of first amendment in the copyright field, New Era Publications International, ApS v. Henry Holt and Co., 873 F.2d 576 (2d Cir.1989), cert. denied, 493 U.S. 1094, 110 S.Ct. 1168, 107 L.Ed.2d 1071 (1990); see also Roy Export Co. Establishment of Vaduz, Liechtenstein v. Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc., 672 F.2d 1095, 1099-1100 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 459 U.S. 826, 103 S.Ct. 60, 74 L.Ed.2d 63 (1982); Wainwright Securities, 558 F.2d at 95. This is not the extraordinary case. Whatever non-protectable information PIL seeks to disseminate is hardly inseparable from TPP's copyrighted expression, as perhaps was the case with the Zapruder film of the Kennedy assassination. See Roy Export, 672 F.2d at 1099-1100 & n. 8; Time, Inc. v. Bernard Geis Associates, 293 F.Supp. 130 (S.D.N.Y.1968). The First Amendment defense was properly rejected.