Frank Music Corp. v. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc.

• Decision Date: 23 September 1985
• Docket Number: Nos. 83-6426,INC,83-6460,METRO-GOLDWYN-MAYE,s. 83-6426
• Citation: 227 USPQ 687,772 F.2d 505
• Parties: , 227 U.S.P.Q. 687, 1985 Copr.L.Dec. P 25,839 FRANK MUSIC CORPORATION, Robert Wright, George Forrest, Anne Lederer (as Executrix of the Last Will of Charles Lederer), Luther Davis, and Edwin Lester, Plaintiffs- Appellants- Cross-Appellees, v., a Delaware corporation, MGM Grand Hotel, Inc., a Nevada corporation, and Donn Arden, Defendants-Appellees-Cross-Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

Page 505

772 F.2d 505

54 USLW 2218, 227 U.S.P.Q. 687, 1985

Copr.L.Dec. P 25,839

FRANK MUSIC CORPORATION, Robert Wright, George Forrest, Anne Lederer (as Executrix of the Last Will of Charles Lederer), Luther Davis, and Edwin Lester Plaintiffs- Appellants- Cross-Appellees, v. METRO-GOLDWYN-MAYER, INC., a Delaware corporation, MGM Grand Hotel, Inc., a Nevada corporation, and Donn Arden Defendants-Appellees-Cross-Appellants.

Nos. 83-6426, 83-6460.

United States Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit.

Argued and Submitted Jan. 9, 1985.

Decided Sept. 23, 1985.

David H. Kornblum, Los Angeles, Cal., for plaintiffs-appellants-cross-appellees.

Peter F. Sloss, Sloss & Becker, San Francisco, Cal., Frederick F. Greenman, Jr., Linden & Deutsch, New York City, amicus curiae for Songwriters Guild.

Irwin Karp, New York City, amicus curiae for Dramatists Guild, The Authors League of America.

Bernard Korman, New York City, Kadison, Pfaelzer, Woodard, Quinn & Rossi, John J. Quinn, Howard O. Boltz, Jr., Los Angeles, Cal., amicus curiae, for American Society of Composers Authors & Publishers.

Karen Randall, Charles H. Stein, Wyman, Bautzer, Rothman, Kuchel & Silbert, Los Angeles, Cal., for defendants-appellees-cross-appellants.

Latham & Watkins, Jill S. Slater, John B. Missing, Los Angeles, Cal., Lionel, Sawyer & Collins, Robert D. Faiss, Las Vegas, Nev., amicus curiae for Nevada Resort Assoc.

On Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California.

Before FLETCHER, BOOCHEVER, and REINHARDT, Circuit Judges.

FLETCHER, Circuit Judge:

This copyright infringement suit arises out of defendants' use of five songs from plaintiffs' dramatico-musical play Kismet in a musical revue staged at defendant MGM Grand Hotel in 1974-76. After a bench trial, the district court found infringement and awarded the plaintiffs $22,000 as a share of defendants' profits. Plaintiffs appeal and defendants cross-appeal. We affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand.

I. FACTS

The original version of Kismet was a dramatic play, written by Edward Knoblock in 1911. Knoblock copyrighted the play as an unpublished work in that year and again as a published work in 1912. Knoblock's copyright expired in 1967, and the dramatic play Kismet entered the public domain.

In 1952, plaintiff Edwin Lester acquired the right to produce a musical stage production of the dramatic play Kismet. Lester hired plaintiffs Luther Davis and Charles Lederer to write the libretto and plaintiffs Robert Wright and George Forrest to write the music and lyrics for the musical adaptation. In 1953 and 1954, Lederer and Davis copyrighted their dramatico-musical play Kismet, and in 1953, Wright and Forrest assigned to plaintiff Frank Music Corporation the right to copyright all portions of the musical score written for Kismet. Frank Music subsequently obtained copyrights for the entire musical score and for each of the songs in the score.

In 1954, Lederer, Wright, and Forrest entered into a license agreement with Loew's, Inc., a predecessor of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc., ("MGM, Inc.") granting to it the right to produce a musical motion picture based on plaintiffs' play. MGM released its motion picture version of Kismet, starring Howard Keel and Ann Blyth, in 1955.

The story presented in the MGM film and in plaintiffs' dramatico-musical play is essentially the same as that told in Knoblock's dramatic play. It is the tale of a day in the life of a poetic beggar named Hajj and his daughter, Marsinah. The story is set in ancient Baghdad, with major scenes in the streets of Baghdad, the Wazir's palace, an enchanted garden, and the Wazir's harem.

On April 26, 1974, defendant MGM Grand Hotel premiered a musical revue entitled Hallelujah Hollywood in the hotel's Ziegfield Theatre. The show was staged, produced, and directed by defendant Donn Arden. It featured ten acts of singing, dancing, and variety performances. Of the ten acts, four were labeled as "tributes" to MGM motion pictures of the past, and one was a tribute to the "Ziegfield Follies." The remaining acts were variety numbers, which included performances by a live tiger, a juggler, and the magicians, Siegfried and Roy.

The Ziegfield Theatre, where Hallelujah Hollywood was performed, is a lavish showplace. Its special features, including huge elevators used to raise or lower portions of the stage and ceiling lifts capable of lowering performers down into the audience during the shows, reportedly provide impressive special effects.

Act IV of Hallelujah Hollywood, the subject of this lawsuit, was entitled "Kismet," and was billed as a tribute to the MGM movie of that name. Comprised of four scenes, it was approximately eleven and one-half minutes in length. It was set in ancient Baghdad, as was plaintiffs' play, and the characters were called by the same or similar names to those used in plaintiffs' play. Five songs were taken in whole or in part from plaintiffs' play. No dialogue was spoken during the act, and, in all, it contained approximately six minutes of music taken directly from plaintiffs' play.

The total running time of Hallelujah Hollywood was approximately 100 minutes, except on Saturday nights when two acts were deleted, shortening the show to 75 minutes. The show was performed three times on Saturday evenings, twice on the other evenings of the week.

On November 1, 1974, plaintiffs informed MGM Grand that they considered Hallelujah Hollywood to infringe their rights in Kismet. MGM Grand responded that it believed its use of plaintiffs' music was covered by its blanket license agreement with the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers ("ASCAP"). In 1965, plaintiffs had granted to ASCAP the right to license certain rights in the musical score of their play Kismet.

Plaintiffs filed this action, alleging copyright infringement, unfair competition, and breach of contract. MGM Grand continued to present Hallelujah Hollywood, including Act IV "Kismet," until July 16, 1976, when the hotel substituted new music in Act IV. In all, the "Kismet" sequence was used in approximately 1700 performances of the show.

II. DISCUSSION

A. Scope of the ASCAP License

Paragraph one of the ASCAP license gives MGM Grand the right to perform publicly "non-dramatic renditions of the separate musical compositions" in the ASCAP repertory. ¹ Paragraph three excludes from the license "dramatico-musical works, or songs [accompanied by] visual representation of the work from which the music is taken...." ² The district court addressed both of these clauses and concluded that Act IV of Hallelujah Hollywood was nondramatic but contained visual representations of plaintiffs' play. The court therefore held that Act IV exceeded the scope of the ASCAP license. We review de novo the district court's interpretation of the agreement because the court interpreted the agreement from the face of the document and as a matter of law. In re Financial Securities Litigation, 729 F.2d 628, 631-32 (9th Cir.1984). We apply the clearly erroneous standard to its findings as to the sufficiency of the visual representations.

We agree with the result reached by the district court, but not with its approach. We agree that Act IV "Kismet" was accompanied by "visual representation" of plaintiffs' play. Accordingly, defendants' use was excluded from the ASCAP license by the express terms of paragraph three. We conclude, however, that there is no reason to consider, as the district court did, whether Act IV was "non-dramatic."

The district court found the following "visual representations": plaintiffs' songs were performed in Hallelujah Hollywood by singers identified as characters from plaintiffs' Kismet, dressed in costumes designed to recreate Kismet, and the performance made use of locale, settings, scenery, props, and dance style music of the type used in plaintiffs' work.

The defendants do not challenge the finding that their production contained these visual representations. They argue, instead, that the district court failed to give sufficient consideration to whether the visual representations in Act IV were "of the work from which the music is taken," i.e., plaintiffs' Kismet. Defendants suggest that this distinction is important because plaintiffs' Kismet is a derivative work. They argue that many of the visual representations, (e.g., street scenes in ancient Baghdad, swarming bazaars, and an oriental palace), could be said to be derived from Edward Knoblock's 1911 dramatic version of Kismet rather than from plaintiffs' Kismet. Since Knoblock's play is in the public domain, defendants contend these visual representations are not protectable by plaintiffs' copyright. Defendants further argue that other elements of the "visual representations," such as choreography style and character names, also are not protectable by copyright.

We find defendant's arguments unpersuasive for two reasons. First, their suggestion that they might have derived portions of Act IV from Knoblock's 1911 play is directly contradicted in the record. Arden created Act IV as a tribute to the MGM musical Kismet, which was derived from plaintiffs' play. While preparing Act IV, he obtained the Broadway score of plaintiffs' play and screened the MGM motion picture. The record does not show that any of Act IV was based on Knoblock's 1911 dramatic version of Kismet.

More important, defendants' argument is unpersuasive because it is simply irrelevant. The question we face is not whether the "visual representations" are copyrightable, but whether the use of a copyrighted work exceeds the scope of an ASCAP license because visual representations accompanied the songs. The license agreement does not refer to "copyrightable" visual representations. The district court was not clearly erroneous in finding that Act IV "Kismet" was accompanied by sufficient ³ visual representations derived from plaintiffs' play to place the songs' use beyond the scope of...