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<b>Decision of Note</b> <b>Web Streaming of Film Clips Not Fair Use</b>

By ALM Staff | Law Journal Newsletters |
September 01, 2003

The U.S Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit decided that the unlicensed streaming on the Internet of two-minute clips from Walt Disney films didn't constitute fair use. Video Pipeline Inc. v. Buena Vista Home Entertainment Inc., 02-2497.

Video Pipeline had filed for a declaratory judgment. The district court entered summary judgment in favor of Disney, including on its copyright infringement counterclaim. The Third Circuit noted that neither side had informed the district court that Video Pipeline was appealing an earlier entry of a preliminary injunction. (“By continuing to litigate the case in the District Court after the appeal was taken and by failing to inform either Court of the ongoing actions of the other, counsel risked a needless waste of judicial resources as well as the resources of their clients,” the appeals court complained.)

Affirming the preliminary injunction, the appeals court first found that, under Sec. 107 of the Copyright Act, Video Pipeline's purpose and character of use weighed against a fair-use finding because Disney's trailers and Video Pipeline's clips served the same function. Video Pipeline's making of the clips didn't add new expression, the appeals court emphasized.

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