Opinion ID: 4644700
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Nature of Go! Weighs Against Fair Use

Text: The second statutory factor considers the “the nature of the copyrighted work.” 17 U.S.C. § 107(2). This factor “recognizes that creative works are ‘closer to the core of intended copyright protection’ than informational and functional works, ‘with the consequence that fair use is more difficult to establish when the former works are copied.’” Penguin Books, 109 F.3d at 1402 (quoting Campbell, 510 U.S. at 586). Hence, Boldly’s copying of a creative and “expressive work[]” like Go! tilts the second factor against fair use. Campbell, 510 U.S. at 586. This factor also considers whether the copied work is unpublished, a consideration that is not relevant for the Seuss works. “[T]he unpublished nature of a work is a key, though not necessarily determinative, factor tending to negate a defense of fair use,” because a copyist’s initial publication of the work undermines “the author’s right to control the first public appearance of his undisseminated expression.” Harper & Row, Publishers Inc. v. Nation Enter., 471 U.S. 539, 554–55 (1985) (quotation marks omitted). But the converse is not necessarily true; neither Harper & Row nor any principle of fair use counsels that the publication of the copyrighted work weighs in favor of fair use. See 4 William F. Patry, Patry on Copyright § 10:139.30 (2020) (explaining 20 DR. SEUSS ENTERPRISES V. COMICMIX LLC that “the fact that a work is published does not mean that the scope of fair use is per se broader”). Mindful that the second factor “typically has not been terribly significant in the overall fair use balancing,” Penguin Books, 109 F.3d at 1402, we conclude that the creative nature of Go! weighs against fair use.