Court Opinion

ID: 9478759
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 06:57:26.240116+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:46:36.420468
License: Public Domain

PIERCE, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
I join in Parts II-V of the court’s opinion. I join only in the result in Part I.
As to Part I, I agree that we must reverse and remand because Dr. Freeman failed to rebut appellant’s claim (evidenced by her registration of P-1 as a derivative work) that she did not intend the new material to be “merged” with the prior joint work. See generally 1 M. Nimmer, Nimmer on Copyright § 6.03 (1988). Appellant’s certificate of registration served as “prima facie evidence of the validity of the copyright and of the facts stated in the certificate.” 17 U.S.C. § 410(c) (1982). For Dr. Freeman to claim that his use was not an infringement, but rather that the work was “joint,” was a defense much like any other under the Copyright Act. See 3 M. Nimmer, supra, § 13.04. Therefore, it was incumbent upon Dr. Freeman to rebut appellant’s prima facie evidence that the work (P-1) was derivative, not joint. Ap-pellee failed to meet his burden, however, for he failed to present sufficient evidence to demonstrate appellant’s intent to create a joint work.
The district court appears to have applied the opposite presumption. Rather than focusing on the appellant’s intent at the time of creating the derivative work, the court dwelt primarily on the parties’ long-standing and close professional relationship. From that, it seems to have presumed that P-1 — a by-product of that professional collaboration — was a “joint” work. That presumption, however, in effect placed the burden on the putative author to show that the work was derivative, rather than on the putative infringer to show that the work was joint. The district court’s approach was therefore at odds with the statutory scheme of burdens of proof, and must be reversed as a matter of law.
I differ, though, with Judge Cardamone’s reasoning in Part I. The fact that Dr. Freeman was not the author of any of the new material that went into P-1 did not, of itself, preclude that work from being “joint.” Of course, as Judge Cardamone notes, one cannot be found to be a joint author of a work without actually having contributed to that work. See 1 M. Nim-mer, supra, § 6.07. However, that does not mean that an author, to be a “joint” author, must have contributed to each incremental addition to the work. Thus, in this case, had Dr. Weissmann’s intent been otherwise — had she intended the work to be joint — Dr. Freeman could have been deemed a joint author simply by virtue of his contributions to the earlier work, into which Dr. Weissmann’s material would have been “merged.” See, e.g., Edward B. Marks Music Corp. v. Jerry Vogel Music Co., 140 F.2d 266, 267 (2d Cir.1944); 1 M. Nimmer, supra, § 6.03, at 6-7.
*1328Further, I do not agree that the earlier incorporation of Dr. Freeman’s “False Positives” study into the evolving syllabus was irrelevant. Though not dispositive, the parties’ past willingness to have their works absorbed into the syllabus was relevant to the question of appellant’s intent when she reshaped the syllabus into P-1.
On balance, however, I agree with the court that the evidence relied upon by ap-pellee was not sufficient to show that appellant intended to create a joint work. Therefore, I join the conclusion of the court, and would reverse and remand, with judgment to be entered for appellant.