Opinion ID: 3048481
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Collage Advertisements

Text: Jarvis contends that the 2001 Agreement, which applied to all the images in the collage ads, did not permit the images’ use by K2 in any capacity after May 2003. He also argues that the district court erred in ruling that K2’s collage ads were collective works protected by § 201(c) and hence not infringements of Jarvis’ copyrights. We agree with Jarvis on both counts, because the 2001 Agreement explicitly limited the term of use of Jarvis’ images and because the collage ads were derivative works not protected by § 201(c). We do not reach Jarvis’ other arguments for why the collective works privilege did not apply to the collage ads, namely that the ads were publicly displayed when they were posted on K2’s website, that the ads were new works rather than revisions of the original magazine inserts and that § 201(c) had been circumvented by the 2001 Agreement. Accordingly, we reverse the district court’s ruling that the collage ads were privileged collective works and remand for determinations of K2’s willfulness, statutory and actual damages and attorney’s fees.
[1] The 2001 Agreement authorized K2 to “publish” Jarvis’ images in media including K2’s “brochures, print advertisements . . . posters, and electronically for the web so as to market [its] business.” K2 therefore acted within its rights when it first created the collage ads and published them in the form of magazine inserts. K2 also would not have breached the Agreement had it scanned the ads and placed them online during the time period authorized by the contract. These uses were (or would have been) examples of the “publi[cation]” in 4742 JARVIS v. K2 INC. “posters” and “electronically for the web” contemplated by the Agreement. [2] However, the 2001 Agreement also contained language that explicitly limited the time period during which K2 could use Jarvis’ images. The “Usage” section of the contract specified that K2’s rights were for “2002-2003, ending May 2003.” Analogously, the “Term” section stated that K2’s “photo usage rights apply for the 2002-03 ski season, ending in May 2003.” This language plainly barred any use by K2 of Jarvis’ images after May 2003. The usage term appeared twice in the contract, indicating its significance to the parties and rebutting any claim of inadequate notice. Moreover, the first statement of the term limit came directly after K2’s photo use rights were described, while the second statement was located in a section labeled “Term” and referred specifically to K2’s “photo usage rights.” Given the Agreement’s phrasing and structure, we conclude that the parties agreed that K2 would not use Jarvis’ images in any capacity after May 2003. Cf. 1 Melville B. Nimmer & David Nimmer, Nimmer on Copyright § 3.07[B] (2005) [hereinafter Nimmer on Copyright] (“[I]f consent to use the underlying material is limited in time, then the owner of the derivative work may not exploit the underlying material beyond the time limit.”). K2 notably fails to argue to the contrary, thus apparently conceding that its scanning and online display of the collage ads after May 2003 were not authorized by the Agreement.
Rather than claim that its post-May 2003 use of the collage ads was permitted by the 2001 Agreement itself, K2 relies on the collective works privilege of § 201(c). In relevant part, § 201(c) provides that, “[i]n the absence of an express transfer of the copyright or of any rights under it, the owner of copyright in the collective work is presumed to have acquired only the privilege of reproducing and distributing the contribution as part of that particular collective work, any revision of that JARVIS v. K2 INC. 4743 collective work, and any later collective work in the same series.” K2 contends — and the district court agreed — that the collage ads were collective works and that even though the Agreement’s usage term had expired, K2’s scanning and online display of the ads were permissible uses under § 201(c). We disagree, because the ads were not collective works and thus not eligible for protection under § 201(c).5 [3] By its own terms, § 201(c) protects only collective works. “[T]he owner of copyright in the collective work is presumed to have acquired” certain rights. Id. (emphasis added); see also H.R. Rep. No. 94-1476, at 122 (1976), as reprinted in 1976 U.S.C.C.A.N. 5659, 5737 [hereinafter House Report] (referencing within section on § 201(c) the definition of “collective work” in § 101 and stating that § 201(c) “deals with the troublesome problem of ownership of copyright in contributions to collective works”). Collective and derivative works are both defined in § 101: A “collective work” is a work, such as a periodical issue, anthology, or encyclopedia, in which a number of contributions, constituting separate and independent works in themselves, are assembled into a collective whole. .... 5 K2 asserts that Jarvis waived his derivative works argument because he did not raise it in the district court. However, as Jarvis points out, he had no reason to make the argument during trial because K2 did not assert the § 201(c) privilege until its closing argument. Furthermore, the district court explicitly found that the ads constituted collective works and the record is well-developed on this point. See A-1 Ambulance Serv., Inc. v. County of Monterey, 90 F.3d 333, 338 (9th Cir. 1996) (“Generally, in order for an argument to be considered on appeal, the argument must have been raised sufficiently for the trial court to rule on it.”). At base, the question of whether the ads are derivative or a collective work is a mixed question of law and fact, and the relevant facts are clear and the parties have thoroughly briefed the issue. 4744 JARVIS v. K2 INC. A “derivative work” is a work based upon one or more preexisting works, such as a translation, musical arrangement . . . art reproduction, abridgement, condensation, or any other form in which a work may be recast, transformed, or adapted. A work consisting of editorial revisions, annotations, elaborations, or other modifications which, as a whole, represent an original work of authorship, is a “derivative work.” Id. (emphasis added); see also id. (defining a “compilation,” of which collective works are a subcategory, as “a work formed by the collection and assembling of preexisting materials . . . that are selected, coordinated, or arranged in such a way that the resulting work as a whole constitutes an original work of authorship”); House Report at 122 (“[T]here is a basic distinction between a ‘joint work’ [by multiple authors], where the separate elements merge into a unified whole, and a ‘collective work,’ where they remain unintegrated and disparate.”) (emphasis added); 1 Nimmer on Copyright § 3.02 (“[T]he originality called for in a collective work consists of the collection and assembling of pre-existing works, while derivative work originality lies in the manner in which a preexisting work is transformed . . . .”). [4] Under these statutory definitions, somewhat clarified by the legislative history, the collage ads were derivative rather than collective works. In accordance with his usual practice, Jarvis delivered all of his images to K2 in the form of identical square slides. The collage ads did not merely compile these slides as an album might, or as Jarvis’ own website does. See Chase Jarvis Portfolio, http://www.chasejarvis.com/ portfolio.html. To the contrary, the ads shrank, expanded, distorted, overlaid and otherwise edited the original images, while also combining them with photos taken by other photographers, additional graphics, the K2 logo and marketing slogans. In the “SP5” ad, for example, Jarvis’ six photos are of all different shapes and sizes, one of them has a drawing JARVIS v. K2 INC. 4745 of a falling skier superimposed, there are at least six photos not taken by Jarvis in the arrangement and K2’s logo and the slogan “Are You Listening” are prominently displayed. Similarly, in the “FT10” ad, seven of Jarvis’ photos are arranged in trapezoidal wooden frames of different sizes along with more than a dozen other photos, and the words “Factory Team: Forty Years in the Making” appear in the upper righthand section of the ad. The two remaining collage ads, “SP6” and “FT11,” are strikingly similar, respectively, to the SP5 and FT10 ads; the SP6 ad is largely a vertically aligned version of the SP5 ad while the FT11 ad is largely a black-and-