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<b><i>Decision of Note</b></i> No Credit Needed For Public Domain Materials
In a major narrowing of the Lanham Act, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled unanimously that the law allows the copying of public domain material without giving credit to its source. The 8-0 ruling in Dastar Corp. v. 20th Century Fox Film Corp., 02-428, removes Lanham Act liability from parties that repackage facts or information that originated elsewhere. It could sweep away lawsuits often filed against major studios and publishers by authors and others who claim they were given insufficient credit for their contributions.
In spite of the long-range benefit for studios, the ruling itself was a defeat for Fox, which sued Dastar over Dastar's 'Campaigns in Europe' videotapes marketed in 1998. The tapes made heavy use of footage from a Fox TV series called 'Crusade in Europe,' based on Dwight Eisenhower's book of the same name. The TV series originally aired in 1949 and the copyright expired in 1977. The Dastar package included a new opening sequence but did not use all of the footage from the TV series. In its marketing, Dastar made no mention of the series or the Eisenhower book.
Fox sued, claiming the Dastar product amounted to reverse passing off in violation of the Lanham Act. Fox won at both the district court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. (One member of the Ninth Circuit panel was U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer, sitting by designation. His participation explains why his brother, Supreme Court Justice Breyer, did not participate in the Supreme Court decision. Breyer routinely recuses himself in cases ruled on earlier by his brother Charles.)
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