Kernal Records Oy v. Timbaland
| Decision Date | 07 June 2011 |
| Docket Number | Case No. 09–21597–CIV. |
| Citation | 794 F.Supp.2d 1355 |
| Parties | KERNAL RECORDS OY, Plaintiff,v.Timothy Z. MOSLEY p/k/a Timbaland; et al., Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Southern District of Florida |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Bruce Allen Christensen, Ethan Wall, Richman, Greer, Weil, Brumbaugh, Mirabito & Christensen, Miami, FL, Richard S. Busch, King & Ballow, Nashville, TN, for Plaintiff.Karen Linda Stetson, Grayrobinson P.A., Miami, FL, Jeffrey D. Goldman, Jeffer, Mangels, Butler & Marmaro, LLP, Los Angeles, CA, William L. Charron, Pryor Cashman, LLP, New York, NY, for Defendants.
On March 31, 2011, we issued a non-final Order granting Defendants Timothy Z. Mosley p/k/a Timbaland and Mosley Music, LLC's (“Defendants”) Motion for Summary Judgment [D.E. 137]. [D.E. 227]. The underpinnings of the ruling were our conclusions that Plaintiff's SID file version of “Acid Jazzed Evening” (“AJE”) had first been published on the Internet and that that act constituted simultaneous publication in the United States and other nations around the world having Internet service under the Copyright Act of 1976, 17 U.S.C. § 501, et seq. We concluded that Plaintiff's work met the definition of a “United States work” under 17 U.S.C. § 101(1)(C) and that, pursuant to 17 U.S.C. § 411(a), Plaintiff was required to register AJE prior to suing for copyright infringement. As there was no dispute that Plaintiff had failed to obtain a copyright registration for AJE or for any claimed “sound recording” or “composition,” we found that Plaintiff had not satisfied a statutory condition precedent to initiating this infringement lawsuit. Accordingly, since Plaintiff could not initiate or maintain this action, we granted summary judgment for Defendants.
Plaintiff immediately moved for reconsideration of our ruling or, alternatively, an abeyance in order to register AJE and amend the complaint to show compliance with § 411(a). [D.E. 230]. Before we could rule on this request, Plaintiff obtained registration for AJE and moved for leave to amend the complaint. [D.E. 235]. Defendants oppose the amendment.
Following another thorough review of the record and the legal arguments and analyses presented by the parties, we now affirm our March 31, 2011 ruling. We deny Plaintiff's motion to reconsider to the extent we are asked to reverse our prior ruling. We also deny Plaintiff's motion to amend the complaint. Accordingly, we affirm our grant of summary judgment for Defendants. This determination is final and closes the case.
The action arises from a sound recording of a composition and musical arrangement of “Acidjazzed Evening” created by Glenn Rune Gallefoss (“Gallefoss”) in 2002. Gallefoss, a citizen and resident of Norway, created AJE on a Commodore 64 computer in the form of a SID file.1 Gallefoss based AJE on an earlier musical arrangement created in 2000 on a different kind of computer by Janne Suni (“Suni”) of Finland.
Gallefoss first authorized publication of AJE in an Australian disk magazine called Vandalism News, issue 39, in August 2002. The work was not only displayed but was made available for downloading and copying, with Gallefoss' knowledge and approval. In December 2002, AJE was posted on the High Voltage SID Collection website.
On August 16, 2007, Gallefoss transferred “all transferrable rights” to the sound recording and arrangement of AJE to Plaintiff Kernal Records Oy (“Plaintiff”). Plaintiff alleges that the sound recording and musical arrangement were copied into a new sound recording and composition called “Do It.” Defendants are the performers, writers, producers, publishers, record labels, and others associated with “Do It,” who wrote, created, copied, published, licensed, distributed, manufactured and/or sold “Do It,” or authorized others to do so in various media. Plaintiff is suing for copyright infringement of sound recording, infringement of musical work, and accounting. [D.E. 63; D.E. 108; D.E. 195].
Defendants moved for summary judgment on Plaintiff's infringement claims on the ground that Plaintiff had not obtained copyright registration for its SID file version of AJE or for any claimed “sound recording” or “composition” and therefore had failed to satisfy the statutory preconditions of 17 U.S.C. § 411(a) for filing an infringement suit.2 Plaintiff claimed AJE is exempt from § 411(a) requirements.
Section 411(a) of the Copyright Act of 1976 provides in relevant part that no suit for copyright infringement of a “United States work” may be instituted until the work has been registered with the United States Copyright Office. 17 U.S.C. § 411(a) (). For purposes of § 411, a work is a “United States work” only if, (1) in the case of a published work, the work is first published—
(A) in the United States;
(B) simultaneously in the United States and another treaty party 3 or parties, whose law grants a term of copyright protection that is the same as or longer than the term provided in the United States;
(C) simultaneously in the United States and a foreign nation that is not a treaty party; or
(D) in a foreign nation that is not a treaty party, and all of the authors of the work are nationals, domiciliaries, or habitual residents of, or in the case of an audiovisual work legal entities with headquarters in, the United States[.]
17 U.S.C. § 101.
In 1989, the United States acceded to the Berne Convention (“Convention”), an international copyright treaty that among other things prohibits signatories from imposing copyright formalities as a condition to the protection of works of nationals of other member countries. See generally Christopher Sprigman, Reform(aliz)ing Copyright, 57 Stan. L.Rev. 485, 488 (2004).4 To meet obligations necessary to adhere to the Convention, the United States eliminated many of the formalities for foreign works, including the registration requirement of § 411(a). See, e.g., Football Ass'n Premier League Ltd. v. YouTube, Inc. 633 F.Supp.2d 159, 163–64 (S.D.N.Y.2009); 2 Melville B. Nimmer & David Nimmer, Nimmer on Copyright § 7.01[A], at 7–8–7–9 (2011) (); see also Berne Convention Implementation Act of 1988, Pub.L. No. 100–568, 102 Stat. 2853 (1988). Thus, if AJE does not qualify as a “United States work,” it is exempt from the registration requirement of § 411(a).
Defendants argue (1) that the evidence establishes that AJE was first published on the Internet in Vandalism News # 39 in August 2002 and (2) that publication on the Internet constitutes simultaneous publication all over the world. If both those assertions are correct, then AJE qualifies as a “United States work” under § 101(1)(C) because it was published simultaneously in the United States and (necessarily) in foreign nations that are non-treaty parties.5 17 U.S.C. § 101(1)(C).
Plaintiff hotly disputes Defendants' assertion that AJE was first published on the Internet. Plaintiff insists that when Gallefoss testified AJE was first published on a “disk magazine,” he was referring to a “computer disk containing a magazine,” i.e., a physical computer disk.
at 4]. Plaintiff claims that the evidence shows that AJE was not posted on the Internet until it appeared on the High Voltage SID Collection website, more than three months after it was published in Vandalism News. At the very least, Plaintiff contends that the manner of first publication is in dispute and precludes entry of summary judgment on the issue.
Plaintiff also disagrees that Internet publication equates to simultaneous worldwide publication. Plaintiff urges us to follow Moberg v. 33T LLC, 666 F.Supp.2d 415 (D.Del.2009), a decision from the District of Delaware that is the only other published opinion that has addressed this particular issue. Judge Hillman held in that case that publication of photographs posted on a German website did not amount to simultaneous publication in the United States and Germany and therefore, because the photos did not qualify as “United States works,” the plaintiff did not have to satisfy U.S. registration requirements before suing for copyright infringement. 666 F.Supp.2d at 422, 424.
The issues presented for our determination in this case are (1) whether AJE was first published on the Internet and if so, (2) whether that act constituted simultaneous worldwide publication which would make AJE a “United States work” subject to § 411(a)'s registration requirements. We answer both questions in the affirmative.
Defendants argue that AJE was first published on the Internet. Plaintiff claims first publication was on a physical computer disk. At the very least, Plaintiff posits that if we view the evidence in the light most favorable to Plaintiff as the non-moving party, we must find that there are material facts in dispute with regard to this issue.
We disagree and affirm our prior ruling. We have thoroughly reviewed the evidence and conclude the evidence shows that first publication was on the Internet. Moreover, Plaintiff has not offered any credible evidence that creates a dispute about this.
Defendants requested in discovery that Plaintiff produce all documents that evidenced the date, manner and place of first publication of AJE. In response, Plaintiff produced a printout of a computer screen showing the online image of Vandalism News # 39. [D.E. 201–1]. The top of the printout displays the following tabs: “Log In,” “Register,” “Browse,” “Help,” “Statistics,” “Forums,” “RSS,” and “Donate.” The...
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