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Fed Court Believes It Can't Consider Copyright Issue
The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California ordered defendant Artisan Pictures to show cause why a suit against it for payment of film-acquisition rights shouldn't be remanded to state court. The federal court noted it 'likely lacks' subject matter jurisdiction over the declaratory suit, even though the case involves whether copyright claims over licenses for film music were time barred. Sakkis v. Artisan Pictures Inc., CV 08-00049 MMM (JCx).
Cahoots Productions entered into an 'Acquisition of Rights Agreement' with Artisan purportedly for payment of a share of money from the movie 'Blue Hill Avenue.' Cahoots assigned its rights to Dino Sakkis, including authority for Artisan to pay Sakkis $77,720. Artisan executed a 'Distributor's Acceptance' to pay Sakkis directly but later held back on paying Sakkis by citing third parties' claims that licenses for music used in the movie weren't valid. Sakkis then filed suit in Los Angeles Superior Court for a declaration that Artisan was obligated to pay him on the ground that the supposed copyright claims over the music licenses were barred by the three-year statute of limitations of the Copyright Act. Artisan removed the case to the federal district court based on the copyright claims.
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