Court Opinion

ID: 9472056
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 03:48:11.315922+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:42:43.318653
License: Public Domain

WINTER, Circuit Judge,
concurring in the result:
I concur entirely in Judge Mansfield’s discussion of whether these particular defendants can ever be liable for infringement of the musical composition in question and with his conclusion that, since they own legal title to the copyright, no liability for infringement exists.
However, I strongly object to the inclusion in the opinion of the discussion of whether these particular plaintiffs have a sufficient beneficial interest in the original copyright to allow them to bring infringement actions. The discussion is entirely unnecessary to the ruling on the judgment and is thus gratuitous dicta. To purport to rule on this question is particularly inappropriate since the issue is hotly contested and has no governing precedent in this court. It is also a complex issue of some importance, involving the interrelationship of two pieces of legislation enacted some sixty-seven years apart and governing the rights of many authors of intellectual property. I by no means suggest that Judge Mansfield’s discussion reaches an erroneous conclusion, but, should the issue arise *273again, I shall not regard myself as bound by anything said in the present case.