Opinion ID: 784601
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Fees under the Copyright Act

Text: 102 The district court's decision indicates that it may have erred in its legal analysis of the appropriateness of fees under the Copyright Act. We review this possible error de novo. See Entm't Research Group, 122 F.3d at 1216 (holding that a district court's legal analysis or statutory interpretation are reviewed de novo). 103 As noted above, the district court concluded that [d]efendants have not demonstrated that the award of $1.6 million dollars in fees and expenses would further the purposes of the Copyright Act. Forsythe correctly points out that this sentence appears to misstate the law. Under the Copyright Act, the question is whether a successful defense of the action furthered the purposes of the Act, not whether a fee award would do so. See Fogerty, 510 U.S. at 527, 114 S.Ct. 1023. The district court appears to have decided that the fee award itself would not further the purposes of the act. Instead of denying fees outright, the court should have reduced the amount of the requested fee, if appropriate. See Frank Music Corp. v. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc., 886 F.2d 1545, 1556-57 (9th Cir.1989), cert. denied, 494 U.S. 1017, 110 S.Ct. 1321, 108 L.Ed.2d 496 (1990). Because the district court may have applied an incorrect legal analysis, we vacate and remand for reconsideration of whether to award fees under the Copyright Act.