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A scriptwriter without a legal or beneficial copyright interest who obtained an assignment of a claim for infringement of the script couldn't file an infringement suit, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit decided in an en banc ruling. Silvers v. Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc., 01-56069. Nancey Silvers wrote the script for the made-for-TV movie “The Other Woman” as a work for hire for Frank & Bob Films. She later received an assignment from the production company of the right to sue Sony Pictures Entertainment and related entities for alleged copyright infringement by the defendants' film “Stepmom.” Both the district court and the Ninth Circuit denied the defendants' motion to dismiss. But looking at Sec. 501(b) of the Copyright Act of 1976, which gives legal or beneficial owners the right to file an infringement suit, the appeals court stated in its en banc ruling that “under traditional principles of statutory interpretation, Congress' explicit listing of who may sue for copyright infringement should be understood as an exclusion of others from suing for infringement.”