Court Opinion

ID: 9461611
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 22:19:21.607796+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:37:10.084164
License: Public Domain

ELY, Circuit Judge
(concurring and dissenting):
I agree that the judgment relating to the issue of infringement should be reversed. I do not, however, agree that the controversy in that respect requires that an evidentiary hearing be conducted. The viewing of the films in question left me with the inescapable conviction that the appellees have, undeniably, pirated the “expression of the idea” of the appellant’s copyrighted television production. The films themselves supply the most adequate and convincing evidence for my conclusion, and I cannot conceive that additional testimony could alter the resolution that I think proper on that issue. Thus, I would direct the District Court to enter a judgment of infringement and to enter a decree enjoining additional infringement.
While I doubt that the appellant could establish more than minimal damages accruing to it as a result of the appellees’ wrong, I agree that the District Court must conduct a trial on the damage issue, assuming, as I believe, that infringement has occurred.