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Bit Parts

By Stan Soocher
July 27, 2006

Copyright Infringement/Content Deletions

The U.S. District for the District of Colorado declined to accept a public-benefit argument by companies that sold DVD copies of motion pictures, edited without permission of film studios to delete what the editing companies claimed was objectionable content. CleanFlicks of Colorado LLC v. Soderbergh, 02-cv-01662. Granting the studios' and film directors' motion for a permanent injunction, the district court found that the editing companies violated the film studios' exclusive rights to reproduce and distribute movies that the studios make. The court noted: 'Under the facts of this case, the presumed destruction of the [editing companies'] businesses is not a justification for denying these copyright holders ' the Studios ' the right to control the reproduction and distribution of the protected work in their original form.'

Copyright Renewal Rights/Vesting

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania decided that the copyright-renewal term provided for by Congress in 1992 with 17 U.S.C. Sec. 304(a)(2)(B)(i) vests in the party entitled to those rights at the time the renewal application is filed with the Copyright Office, as long as the author is alive when the renewal application is filed. Dimensional Music Publishing LLC v. Kersey, 05-6437. The case involved a fight over writer Ron Kersey's 50% share of the copyright to the 1977 composition 'Disco Inferno.' The administrator for Dimensional Music, the song's current publisher, had filed a copyright-renewal application on Jan. 5, 2005, the 28th year of the initial copyright term. Kersey died on Jan. 25, 2005. The renewal took effect on Jan. 1, 2006. Kersey's estate argued that his death served to revert the renewal right to his estate because Kersey didn't live to the end of the 28th year. Dimension argued that it was entitled to the renewal right because Kersey was alive when the renewal application was filed. Siding with Dimension, the district court noted: 'The case will now proceed on the question of whether Kersey's renewal rights were [in fact] transferred by the 1977 Agreement.'

Recording Contracts/Personal Jurisdiction

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