LibGuides: Copyright for Students: US Supreme Court Cases

Supreme Court Copyright Cases

List of United States Supreme Court copyright case law

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_Supreme_Court_copyright_case_law

This is an incomplete list of Supreme Court of the United States cases in the area of copyright law.

Case	Citation	Year		Summary
Wheaton v. Peters	33 U.S. (8 Pet.) 591	1834	There is no such thing as common law copyright and one must observe the formalities to secure a copyright.
Trade-Mark Cases	100 U.S. 82	1879	Copyright Clause does not give Congress the power to regulate trademarks
Baker v. Selden	101 U.S. 99	1879	Idea-expression divide; differences between copyright & patent law
Burrow-Giles Lithographic Co. v. Sarony	111 U.S. 53	1884	Extended copyright protection to photography.
Banks v. Manchester	128 U.S. 244	1888	No copyright in state Supreme Court opinions.
Bleistein v. Donaldson Lithographing Company	188 U.S. 239	1903	Copyright protection of illustrations made for advertisements
United Dictionary Co. v. G. & C. Merriam Co.	208 U.S. 260	1908
White-Smith Music Publishing Company v. Apollo Company	209 U.S. 1	1908	Reproduction of the sounds of musical instruments playing music for which copyright granted not a violation of the copyright.
Bobbs-Merrill Co. v. Straus	210 U.S. 339	1908	No license to use copyrighted material. License cannot extend holder's rights beyond statute defined by Congress.
Kalem Co. v. Harper Bros.	222 U.S. 55	1911
Ferris v. Frohman	223 U.S. 424	1912
Bauer & Cie. v. O'Donnell	229 U.S. 1	1913	Differences between patent and copyright defined also prohibits a license from extending rights holders' rights beyond statute. Rights of copyright holder regarding “use” of copyrighted works.
Herbert v. Shanley Co.	242 U.S. 591	1917	Hotels & restaurants that perform music must compensate composers, even if the venue is not separately charging patrons to hear the music.
International News Service v. Associated Press	248 U.S. 215	1918
Buck v. Jewell-LaSalle Realty Co.	283 U.S. 191	1931	A hotel operator which provided headphones connected to a centrally controlled radio receiver was guilty of copyright infringement, because "reception of a radio broadcast and its translation into audible sound is not a mere audition of the original program. It is essentially a reproduction." NB: Gene Buck, plaintiff, was president of ASCAP.
Fox Film Corp v. Doyal	286 U.S. 123	1932	States may tax copyright royalties, as they can patent royalties, because even though copyrights & patents are granted by the federal government, they are still private property subject to taxation.
Washingtonian Pub. Co. v. Pearson	306 U.S. 30	1938	The 1909 Act's deposit requirement did not require immediate deposit, or deposit before infringement occurs, in order to bring a suit for infringement
Sheldon v. Metro-Goldwyn Pictures Corp.	309 U.S. 390	1940	In the case of an unauthorized adaptation, court may elect to award only a portion of an infringer's profits to the plaintiff.
Fred Fisher Music Co. v. M. Witmark & Sons	318 U.S. 643	1943
United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc.	334 U.S. 131	1948
F. W. Woolworth Co. v. Contemporary Arts, Inc.	344 U.S. 227	1952	Court may grant statutory damages, even when infringer proves its gross profits were less than the statutory award. Judges granted wide latitude when determining legal remedies based on the facts of the case.
Mazer v. Stein	347 U.S. 201	1954	Extended copyright protection to functional art.
De Sylva v. Ballentine	351 U.S. 570	1956
Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc. v. Loew's, Inc.	356 U.S. 43	1958	aff'd 4-4 sub. nom., Benny v. Loew's, 239 F.2d 532 (9th Cir. 1956)
Fortnightly Corp. v. United Artists Television, Inc.	392 U.S. 390	1968	Receiving a television broadcast (of a licensed work) does not constitute a "performance"
Goldstein v. California	412 U.S. 546	1973
Teleprompter Corp. v. Columbia Broadcasting	415 U.S. 394	1974	Receiving a television broadcast does not constitute a "performance"
Twentieth Century Music Corp. v. Aiken	422 U.S. 151	1975	Receiving a radio broadcast of a licensed work does not constitute a "performance". This effectively overruled Buck v. Jewel-LaSalle Realty Co. (1931)
Williams & Wilkins Co. v. United States	420 U.S. 376	1976	aff'd by an equally divided court, 420 U.S. 376, 95 S.Ct. 1344 (1975)
Broadcast Music v. Columbia Broadcasting System	441 U.S. 1	1979
Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc.	464 U.S. 417	1984	The Betamax Case
Mills Music, Inc. v. Snyder	469 U.S. 153	1985	Assignment of royalties under the Copyright Act
Harper & Row v. Nation Enterprises	471 U.S. 539	1985	The interest served by republication of a public figure's account of an event is not sufficient to permit non-transformative Fair use.
Dowling. v. United States	473 U.S. 207	1985	Copyright infringement is not theft, conversion, or fraud; illegally made copies are not stolen goods.
Community for Creative Non-Violence v. Reid	490 U.S. 730	1989	Works for hire.
Stewart v. Abend	495 U.S. 207	1990	Rights of the successor of a copyright interest
Feist Publications, Inc. v. Rural Telephone Service Co.	499 U.S. 340	1991	Affirmed the need for a minimal amount of creativity before a work is copyrightable. "Sweat of the brow" alone is not sufficient to bestow copyright.
Fogerty v. Fantasy, Inc.	510 U.S. 517	1994	Attorney's fees in copyright litigation may be awarded to successful defendants, as well as to successful plaintiffs
Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc.	510 U.S. 569	1994	Commercial parody can be fair use.
Lotus Dev. Corp. v. Borland Int'l, Inc.	516 U.S. 233	1995	Scope of software copyrights.
Quality King Distributors, Inc. v. L'anza Research Int'l, Inc.	523 U.S. 135	1998	First-sale doctrine applies to reimported goods
Feltner v. Columbia Pictures Television, Inc.	523 U.S. 340	1998	Seventh Amendment right to jury trial in a copyright infringement case
New York Times Co. v. Tasini	533 U.S. 483	2001	Freelance journalists did not grant electronic republication rights for collective work.
Eldred v. Ashcroft	537 U.S. 186	2003	Challenge to Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998; held Congress may retroactively extend the duration of works still under copyright, as long as the extension is limited.
Dastar Corp. v. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp.	539 U.S. 23	2003	Trademark cannot preserve rights to a public domain work.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd.	545 U.S. 913	2005	Distributors of peer-to-peer file-sharing software can be liable for copyright infringement if there are "affirmative Steps taken to foster infringement".
Reed Elsevier, Inc. v. Muchnick	559 U.S. 154	2010	Settlement of copyright infringement claims relating to an electronic database
Omega S.A. v. Costco Wholesale Corp.	562 U.S. ___	2010	aff'g 541 F.3d 982 (9th Cir. 2008)
Golan v. Holder	565 U.S. 132 S. Ct. 873	2012	Challenge to Uruguay Round Agreements Act; held Constitution gives broad discretion to Congress to decide how best to promote the "progress of science and the useful arts", including restoring copyright in public domain works.
Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.	568 U.S. 133 S. Ct. 1351	2013	The first-sale doctrine applies to copyrighted works made lawfully overseas.
Petrella v. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc.	572 U.S. ____	2014	The laches defense is not available in copyright infringement cases.
American Broadcasting Cos., Inc. v. Aereo, Inc.	573 U.S. ____	2014	Aereo's subscription service allowed subscribers to view live and time-shifted streams of over-the-air television on Internet-connected devices; the live viewing was deemed to be an infringing "retransmission" within the meaning of the public performance right.

Further research:

Raza Panjwani, "Supreme Court Copyright Index" (last visited May 26, 2014) - A website of Supreme Court copyright jurisprudence, organized by justice

Copyright for Students: US Supreme Court Cases

Georgia State University Copyright Lawsuit

Supreme Court Copyright Cases

U.S. Supreme Court Copyright Cases