Court Opinion

ID: 9638468
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 15:44:30.264554+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:21:34.684524
License: Public Domain

L. HAND, Circuit Judge
(concurring).
I agree with the result and with the general reasoning by which it is reached as I understand it, but I do not agree with all that is said. Nichols v. Universal Pictures Corp., 2 Cir., 45 F.2d 119, followed exactly the same doctrine that we are using now: it held that there is a point where the similarities are so little concrete (are therefore so abstract) that they become only “theme”, “idea”, or skeleton of the plot, and that these are always in the public domain; no copyright can protect them. The test is necessarily vague and nothing more definite can be said about it. ■ Precisely this doctrine was also used in Sheldon v. Metro-Goldwyn Pictures Corp., 2 Cir., 81 F.2d 49, though of course the result was different. In Dam v. Kirk La Shelle Co., 2 Cir., 175 F. 902, 907, 908, 41 L.R.A.,N.S., 1002, 20 Ann.Cas. 1173, Judge Noyes did say that “unless the copyright statute is broad enough to cover any adaptation which contains the plot or theme of the story, it is wholly ineffective”; but unless the words “plot” and “theme” are read as I have said, I cannot agree. Since I am not sure that the opinion in the case at bar does not interpret Nichols v. Universal Pictures Corp. and Sheldon v. Metro-Goldwyn Pictures Corp. in another sense, I do not wish my concurrence to be understood as indicating any change in my views.
SWAN, Circuit Judge, concurring.