G. Ricordi & Co. v. Mason
| Decision Date | 04 December 1911 |
| Parties | G. RICORDI & CO. v. MASON et al. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Southern District of New York |
Nathan Burkan, of New York City, for complainant.
Edwards Sager & Wooster, of New York City, and Browne & Woodworth, of Boston, Mass. (Alexander P. Browne, of Boston, Mass., of counsel), for defendant Mason.
The complainant, as the owner of copyrights in the operas 'Germania' and 'Iris,' seeks to restrain the defendants from publishing a book called 'Opera Stories' which, it asserts, is an infringement of its copyrights.
'Germania' covers 46 printed pages and is divided into three acts. The 'story' of this opera as printed by the defendants covers a little more than half a page, each act being described in a paragraph containing about 100 words. The entire situation will be made plain by reproducing the defendants' statement of the first act:
It will be observed that the quotation above given is neither an opera, nor, strictly speaking, the story of an opera. The reader gets a vague, fragmentary and superficial idea of the plot and of the characters. One reading it might acquire sufficient information to enable him to decide whether or not he wishes to attend the opera. If he were attracted by so commonplace a plot as that disclosed in the first act he would probably attend, otherwise he would remain at home. I am unable to perceive how such an indeterminate statement infringes the copyright of the opera. It does not use the author's language, it does not appropriate his ideas and it does not reproduce his characters. Indeed, it appears from the defendants' affidavits that the author of the 'story' did not prepare it from the copyrighted opera but from a description thereof found in a newspaper. It gives just enough information to put the reader upon inquiry, precisely as the syllabus of a law report, the review of a book or the description of a painting induces the reader to examine further.
It is generally supposed that the proprietors of operas are interested in having...
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Loew's Incorporated v. Columbia Broadcasting System
...Co. v. Baldwin Law Book Co., 6 Cir., 1928, 27 F.2d 82, 89, but taking of citations held an infringement. 21 G. Ricordi & Co. v. Mason, C.C.N.Y. 1911, 201 F. 182, 184, affirmed, 2 Cir., 1913, 210 F. 277. 22 Kipling v. G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2 Cir., 1903, 120 F. 631, 635. 23 Dun v. Internationa......
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Twin Peaks Productions, Inc. v. Publications Intern., Ltd.
...fact that the summaries gave only a "vague, fragmentary and superficial idea of the plot and of the characters," G. Ricordi & Co. v. Mason, 201 F. 182, 182 (C.C.S.D.N.Y.1911), aff'd, 210 F. 277 (2d Cir.1913), and further indicated [i]f this case involved an abridgment as that word is ordina......
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Toho Co., Ltd. v. William Morrow and Co., Inc.
...Morrow contends that the Morrow Book contains summaries that can be described as "vague, fragmentary and superficial." G. Ricordi & Co. v. Mason, 201 F. 182, aff'd 210 F. 277 (2d Cir.1913). Morrow also contends that the Book only contains that which was necessary to inform the commentary an......
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Corcoran v. Montgomery Ward & Co.
...phrase "any other version" appears not to be settled by the decisions. The phrase has been held to apply to abridgements. G. Ricordi & Co. v. Mason, C.C., 201 F. 182; Id., D.C., 201 F. 184; Id., 2 Cir., 210 F. 277; Macmillan Co. v. King, 223 F. 862. It has been suggested that it refers to v......