Court Opinion

ID: 9479663
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 07:24:58.790968+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:47:11.502257
License: Public Domain

SILBERMAN, Circuit Judge,
concurring in the judgment:
We are asked in this case to review the decision of the Register of Copyrights denying Atari’s application for a registration in the audio-visual display accompanying its game BREAKOUT. The copyrightability of the display is an issue currently before the District Court for the Northern District of Illinois where Atari has brought *887an action against a putative infringer. See Atari Games Corp. v. Romstar, Inc., Civil No. 87 C 9504. Because a registration would afford something of an evidentiary advantage in that suit, see infra at 879-880, Atari has chosen to pursue this petition for review simultaneously with the infringement suit.
I join the judgment of the court — remanding the case to the Register of Copyrights for adequate explanation — because I cannot determine confidently from the Register’s December 7, 1987 letter, the final agency action, what standard the Office used to deny registration. I write separately because I think the majority opinion could be misinterpreted so as to confine improperly the Register’s discretion on remand.
We must bear in mind that when we review the Register’s determination to accept or reject an application for registration, we do not make a final decision on the copyrightability of the item. In fact, as the majority opinion recognizes, the Copyright Office’s imprimatur is worth only a rebut-table presumption as to copyrightability in an infringement action. And as the government points out, the Copyright Office receives over a 100,000 applications every year. Every time the Register denies registration for too little creativity it cannot be expected to issue an opinion that compares with the learned offerings of my colleagues. I think that is why the courts have generally thought abuse of discretion to be the appropriate standard to review the Office’s denial of a registration. Since the applicant can gain full judicial review of copyrightability in an infringement action, the costs of forcing too fine an analysis and too extensive an explanation of a denial of registration1 are not worth the benefits — particularly when reviewing a question which has unavoidably subjective aspects such as how much creativity is sufficient to force the Copyright Office to register a proffered work.
If, however, the Register wishes to make a categorical distinction between classes of works such as video games as compared to other offerings such as works of art, and that distinction is to be based on the Register’s interpretation of the Copyright Act — which distinguishes between “idea” and “expression”2 —his determination might even be subject to a somewhat stricter scope of review than abuse of discretion — but it would still be quite deferential. I refer, of course, to Chevron, which obliges us ordinarily to leave undisturbed a permissible or reasonable agency interpretation of a statute if Congress has not directly addressed the issue presented. See Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. NRDC, 467 U.S. 837, 104 S.Ct. 2778, 81 L.Ed.2d 694 (1984). If the Register has adopted such an interpretation to govern his office’s decisions on registration, that does not mean that the judiciary would be obliged to afford deference to that position in an infringement action, which, of course, is not a direct review of agency action governed by the Administrative Procedure Act. The Copyright Act is quite explicit as to the weight a registration decision is to be given in that kind of judicial proceeding. The Register’s decision to grant a copyright merely constitutes prima facie evidence of the copyright’s validity in any infringement action brought within five years of the works first publication (and only whatever weight the court deems appropriate for actions brought after that time), see 17 U.S.C. § 410(c); judicial review of questions of law, including the question of copyright-ability, is otherwise entirely de novo. See Durham Industries, Inc. v. Tomy Corp., 630 F.2d 905, 908 (2d Cir.1980).
It is unclear to me whether the Register has drawn a categorical distinction between idea and expression in this case. It was *888suggested at oral argument that if a still of any of the computer images that appear during the game of BREAKOUT were submitted to the Copyright Office as a work of art, a copyright would issue. In that form, perhaps, the Register would not dispute the presentation’s creativity. But the Register is apparently more willing to reject video game displays as insufficiently creative and has done so, not only in the case of BREAKOUT, but also in several other instances that were brought to the court’s attention. It would seem then, that the Copyright Office is using a different standard to determine the copyrightability of video games than it uses for other works— which it may well be entitled to do — but it has not explained what those standards are (if they are indeed different) nor how it applies them.
The only indication we have of how the Register justifies this divergent treatment is the statement in the December 7 letter referring to the arrangement of the few items on the screen (at any given moment) as “basically dictated by the functional requirements of this or similar backboard type games.” The letter does not further explain what the Copyright Office means by that cryptic statement, but, in its brief, the government argues that “BREAKOUT represents no more than a videogame idea” and therefore is not protected under the copyright statute: See 17 U.S.C. § 102. The government’s brief further states that “games have been particularly susceptible to copying under copyright because the core feature — the idea for the game — -cannot be protected.” The government thus seems to be suggesting — although it is by no means clear, even in its brief — that in distinguishing between unprotected ideas and protected expressions under the copyright statute (an obviously difficult analytical task) the Register adopts a somewhat different approach for games than it does for, let us say, a magazine cover. Cf. Reader’s Digest Ass’n v. Conservative Digest, Inc., 821 F.2d 800 (D.C.Cir.1987).
I have the impression from the letter and brief that what underlies the Register’s position is the notion that works of art — for instance, a drawing of the Potomac River or even of simple geometrical shapes — are almost entirely “expression”; the “idea” element is insignificant, and the Register therefore, seems more readily to afford them registration. On the other hand, the Register apparently believes that a video game’s fundamental character is its idea or concept, and the form of expression it takes may be less important. The geometric shapes that appear at any moment on the BREAKOUT screen, and the rather simple audio tones, under that approach, would be seen primarily as a function of the idea of the game rather than an independent attempt at expression. If this is what accounts for the Register’s disparate treatment of video displays and works of art, it may or may not be a “permissible interpretation” of the Copyright Act by the Register of Copyrights. See Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. NRDC, 467 U.S. 837, 104 S.Ct. 2778, 81 L.Ed.2d 694 (1984). I cannot be confident that this is even the Register’s view since it is only hinted at in the Register’s letter and only marginally elaborated in the government’s brief. For that reason, I believe the case should be remanded to the Copyright Office for adequate explanation of its decision, and therefore I join in the judgment of the court.
The primary problem I find in the majority’s opinion is its implicit, if not explicit, expansion of the scope of our review of the Copyright Office’s registration decisions. To be sure, the majority nominally accepts abuse of discretion as the proper standard — surely the most deferential form of judicial review of agency action that we can employ. But as far as I can determine, there is no connection between the majority’s adoption of that standard and its further discussion of the issues in the case. The majority’s holding, set forth at pages 881-882, is that the Register’s explanation of his action was inadequate to afford judicial review. The majority has three questions as to the Register’s letter: (a) did the Register treat the work as a whole or only its components? (b) did the Register employ the “normal” standard of creativity? and (c) is the Register’s decision consistent with earlier and later pronounce*889ments of the Copyright Office3 and courts? I agree, as I have already indicated, that the Register is quite unclear as to the standard of creativity he is applying, particularly whether he is employing a different standard for video games, and therefore I have no fundamental quarrel with the majority’s decision to remand for further explanation on that point. But see infra at 890. But the majority’s other concerns, though also phrased in terms of questions, seem to be points of disagreement rather than confusion. For instance, the majority’s statement “we are at a loss to understand why the Register did not more solidly link the final decision to the Act’s apparent recognition that the whole — the ‘series of related images’ — may be greater than the sum of its several or stationary parts,” Maj.Op. at 881 (emphasis added), reflects a difference in emphasis, not judicial concern with agency inarticulateness. And when the majority says that it is “uncertain” whether the Register’s decision is “consistent with earlier and later pronouncements of the Copyright Office and courts,” Maj. Op. at 882 (emphasis added), it is implying, not an inability to understand the Register, but rather that the Register’s position is vulnerable if it departs from some judicial interpretations— which sounds like at least a tentative view on the merits. Of course even a suggestion that the Register is barred from adopting an interpretation of the Copyright Act regarding video games that is inconsistent with the view expressed by certain courts (let alone some scholarly commentators) would be at odds with the abuse of discretion standard of review; it would more nearly resemble de novo scrutiny. If that is what the majority means to imply, it is, in my view, not good administrative law. Thereafter, the majority launches into a thoughtful discussion of copyright law which — whatever value it may have to copyright law aficionados — does not seem to relate directly to the narrow issue before us now and therefore could be misinterpreted.
In that regard, I find the majority’s discussion of the Fourth Circuit’s opinion about the application of the idea/expression distinction to video games expressed in M. Kramer Mfg. Co. v. Andrews, 783 F.2d 421 (4th Cir.1986), a copyright infringement case (not cited by the parties), to be somewhat misleading, surely premature, and perhaps inapposite. There, the court of appeals rejected a district court suggestion that video games are never copyrightable. Although the court recognized that “it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between the two concepts of ‘idea’ and ‘expression,’ ” and that “if there is only one way to express the idea, ‘idea’ and ‘expression’ merge and there is no copyrightable material,” see id. at 436, it seemed to regard computer games as more expression than idea and therefore readily copyrightable. The Fourth Circuit was not, however, reviewing a determination made by the Register of Copyrights. It may well be that if this issue came to us as it did to the Fourth Circuit in Kramer, as an infringement action in which the court was not obliged to defer to an agency’s action or interpretation, I would follow the Fourth Circuit’s approach, but that hardly justifies a preemptive rejection of any other practice the Register may adopt. That the Fourth Circuit thought “ ‘untenable’ ” the categorization of the video game before it as “ ‘idea’ ” rather than “ ‘expression’ ” Maj.Op. at 884-885 (quoting Kramer, 783 F.2d at 436), does not necessarily preclude the Register from distinguishing video games from other submitted works on idea versus expression grounds. I believe that the proper course in the review of a registration decision is to allow the Register to present his interpretation of the idea/expression dichotomy — which he has not done clearly here, even in counsel’s post hoc suggestions — before the court offers its own guidance.
Similarly, I find the court’s discussion of the Register’s “component-by-component analysis” of BREAKOUT to be a bit heavy-*890handed. In the December 7 letter, summarized fairly in the majority opinion, the Register denied registration because the pictorial and audio components of the game were too simple to pass the nontrivial test for creativity of authorship. I doubt there is any better way to say something is too simple than merely to assert it. When the Register tried to explain why it thought the pictorial and audio aspects of the game were insufficiently creative, it broke the game down into its components and analyzed each part. That leads the majority to conclude that the Office did not judge the work as a whole and therefore, the majority seems to imply, the Office ran afoul of the Copyright Act as interpreted by various courts of appeals. See Maj.Op. at 882 (quoting 17 U.S.C. § 101 which defines audio-visual displays as a “series of related images”); see also Maj.Op. at 883. The December 7 letter, however, asserts that the Register did judge the work as a whole. I do not think the Register can be faulted for analyzing each component of the work. In explaining how one determined the copy-rightability vel non of an audio-visual display, it seems that one would inevitably discuss the components.
In much the same way, the majority appears to prescribe the proper standard of creativity that the Register should employ in assessing audio-visual displays. See Maj. Op. at 883-84. I agree, as I have said, that the Register was unclear as to what standard of creativity should be applied. But I do not think that the Register should be bound on remand to accept the creativity standard found to be “normal” or appropriate by certain courts of appeals and by Professor Nimmer. See Maj. Op. at 881-82. If the Register believes that video games should have to meet a “substantial” rather than a “minimal” creativity threshold, and he adequately explains that interpretation, we would properly review the Register’s decision by applying a reasonableness standard or an abuse of discretion standard, not by deciding merely whether it was consistent with the rulings of courts and the analysis of scholars.4
I agree with the majority that we properly remand here because, in my view, the Register has not explained if or why it is employing a categorical distinction between the registrability thresholds for video game displays and other works. But we must be careful when we choose this procedural option not to make it a device to induce an agency to provide the explanation and the result we think correct. If improperly read, the majority opinion might have the effect of causing the Copyright Office to register virtually any offering. So far as I can determine, no court since 1941 has reversed a decision by the Register to deny an initial application for a copyright.5 And it may well be that, as a practical matter, only denials are vulnerable to legal challenge.6 If that is so, we should not create incentives to register, the effect of which we do not understand.

. The Register typically gives no explanation when the Office registers an offering; the Act requires an explanation if the Office denies registration. See 17 U.S.C. § 410(c).

. 17 U.S.C. § 102(b) provides that:
In no case does copyright protection for an original work of authorship extend to any idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery, regardless of the form in which it is described, explained, illustrated, or embodied in such work, (emphasis added).

. It is not clear what the majority means by earlier and later "pronouncements" of the Copyright Office.

. The Register is not necessarily bound by its previous decisions — subsequently upheld by various courts in infringement actions — granting copyrights to a number of fabric designs and a room divider consisting of simple geometric shapes. See Maj.Op. at 883-84. Since the Copyright Office is only required to explain why it rejects but not why it grants an application for a copyright, see 17 U.S.C. § 410(c), none of those decisions indicates why the Register decided to copyright those works or that the Register has interpreted the Copyright Act to demand a “minimal” creativity standard for regis-trability to be applied across the board to all submissions.

. See Bouve v. Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp., 122 F.2d 51 (D.C.Cir.1941). But at that time, the registration of copyrights was considered “a ministerial duty imposed upon him by the law_" Id. at 56.

.Putative challengers to the grant of registration — such as the defendant in the currently pending infringement suit that apparently precipitated this unusual petition for review of a Copyright Office’s registration decision — may not know of the Copyright Office's action in time to bring a suit under the Administrative Procedure Act. If, on the other hand, they do typically know in time, we may find more and more litigation shifting from infringement actions to challenges of registration decisions— which does not seem desirable.