Bit Parts

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania denied summary judgment to both Paramount Pictures and an individual the studio sued for copyright infringement for allegedly posting a copy of the motion picture “Lemony Snicket's: A Series of Unfortunate Events,” on the eDonkey peer-to-peer file-sharing network a week after the movie was released. The district court found there are “genuine issues of material fact as to whether [defendant] Davis was correctly identified as the infringer, whether he was the first propagator of the motion picture, and whether he engaged in any infringing activity.” Paramount Pictures Corp. v. Davis, 05-0316.

Internet/Unauthorized Music Downloading

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirmed a district court ruling that an individual who claimed she downloaded unlicensed recordings from the Internet to determine whether to buy them couldn't prevail on a fair-use copyright defense. The appeals court noted of the defendant: “Instead of erasing songs that she decided not to buy, she retained them. … A copy downloaded, played, and retained on one's hard drive for future use is a direct substitute for a purchased copy … Many radio stations stream their content over the Internet, paying a fee for the right to do so. Gonzalez could have listened to this streaming music to sample songs for purchase.” The defendant claimed that statutory damages against her should be lowered because she was an innocent infringer. But the district court emphasized: “It is undisputed that BMG Music gave copyright notice as required – 'on the surface of the phonorecord, or on the phonorecord label or container' ([17 U.S.C.] Sec. 402(c)). It is likewise undisputed that Gonzalez had 'access' to records and compact disks bearing the proper notice. She downloaded data rather than discs, and the data lacked copyright notices, but the statutory question is whether 'access' to legitimate works was available rather than whether infringers earlier in the chain attached copyright notices to the pirated works. Gonzalez readily could have learned, had she inquired, that the music was under copyright.” BMG Music v. Gonzalez, 05-1314.

Music Copyrights/Preemption