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<b>Cameo Clips</b> Controversial Ruling On Copyright Protection for Foreign Works

By David Horrigan
December 22, 2008

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld a copyright infringement verdict against the great-grandson of artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir in a fight over the right to reproduce sculptures created by the French impressionist. Soci't' Civile Succession Richard Guino v. Renoir, No. 07-15582. The appeals court noted that stare decisis required it to follow its controversial 1996 precedent regarding Walt Disney's copyright for Bambi. Although that ruling “can be, and has been, criticized, it is still binding in this circuit. We are thus bound to follow it,” the court said.

A three-judge panel held that foreign works ' here, the Renoir sculptures ' were protected by U.S. copyright because they were created before the effective date of the Copyright Act of 1976 and hadn't been copyrighted or fallen into the public domain. Between 1913 and 1917, Renoir and his assistant, Richard Guino, created 11 sculptures that they published in 1917 under Renoir's name without an American-style copyright notice.

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