Bit Parts

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held, in an unpublished opinion, that an insurance company had a duty to defend Time Warner in a suit brought against it by director Francis Ford Coppola. Time Warner Entertainment Co. v. Continental Casualty Co., 02-56221. Coppola had claimed that Time Warner interfered with his attempt to make a “Pinnochio” movie with the Columbia film studio. The appeals court concluded that Coppola's claim fell within the entertainment-risk piracy and misappropriation provisions of the policy that Time Warner had purchased and that the policy covered the pre-production acquiring of and defending rights in a creative work.

Restoration Ruling Reconfirmed

A Manhattan federal court has upheld its earlier grant of summary judgment for Naxos of American in a suit by Capitol Records over the release of digital copies of shellac recordings made by such classical composers as Pablo Casals and Yehudi Menuhin. Capitol Records Inc. v. Naxos of America Inc., 02-7890. The original recordings had not only entered the public domain, the district court noted, but there was confusion over chain of title. Capitol had abandoned its interests in the shellac recordings and “Naxos did not compete unfairly under New York law. Naxos did not attempt to sell identical copies of the shellac recordings, employing effort and skill in making its restorations.”

Actual Damages Denied