Ninth Circuit Focuses On Extrinsic Test In Ruling On Choreography Copyright

Reversing and remanding, the Ninth Circuit emphasized: "The district court's approach of reducing choreography to 'poses' is fundamentally at odds with the way we analyze copyright claims for other art forms, like musical compositions."

5 minute read December 01, 2023 at 12:11 AM

Stan Soocher

Ninth Circuit Focuses On Extrinsic Test In Ruling On Choreography Copyright

To determine whether there is "substantial similarity" between contesting works in copyright infringement cases, federal courts within the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit use a two-step analysis: first an "extrinsic" test based on objective criteria that includes testimony from experts; followed by a subjective, non-expert "intrinsic" test from the perspective of an "ordinary reasonable observer."

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