Cameo Clips

Live Performance/Ticket Prices

A theater could offer age-based ticket discounts, the Court of Appeal of California, Fourth Appellate District, decided. Pizarro v. Lamb's Players Theatre, D045890. A San Diego theater produced a musical titled “Boomers” and advertised it as the “Musical Revue of a Generation.” People born between 1946 and 1964 were offered tickets at half-price for Wednesday-evening shows. Theatre-goers who weren't in that age group filed suit. The court noted that the applicable test on the plaintiffs' claim of age discrimination under Calif. Civ. Code Sec. 51 was whether the “Boomer” discounts were based on an arbitrary class-based generalization.

The Court of Appeal concluded: “This age-based discount is permissible as reasonable and not arbitrary. A reason given by defendant for providing the discount admission to 'baby-boomers' was to encourage attendance at a family-based entertainment event. … Because a theater ticket discount allows greater access to the theater, public policy favors the disparate treatment, whether the discount is made available to children, seniors or boomers. … As a result of this lack of job security and corresponding lack of disposable income, the 'baby-boomer' generation will benefit from price discounts on family-oriented pastimes, as do children and seniors.”

Minimal bridge dialogue and the selection and ordering of pre-existing musical compositions was sufficient for the stage production “The Three Mo' Tenors” to be an original compilation eligible for copyright protection, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York decided. Caffey v. Cook, 04 Civ. 313 (RJH). Writer/choreographer/director Marion Caffey conceived the idea for a stage musical featuring African-American tenors performing different musical styles. He then approached Victor Cook, Rodrick Dixon and Thomas Young to be the show's tenors. Caffey and the three vocalists collaborated in developing the show, which included several songs from the singers' repertoire. Caffey then put 32 songs in order and wrote 1.5 pages of text to be inserted between the performances of the compositions. The three vocalists signed engagement agreements that cited their efforts as work for hire. Caffey later registered as copyright in his name “The Three Mo' Tenors” show as a “creation of text of dialogue in combination with a compilation of song lyrics.” After experiencing financial problems, the Three Mo' Partnership, formed to produce the show and including Caffey but not the three vocalists as partners, was placed into receivership. After fulfilling commitments for previously booked shows, the vocalists toured as Cook, Dixon & Young performing without Caffey's consent what was effectively “The Three Mo' Tenors.”

When Caffey sued for copyright infringement, the defendants claimed that show was a derivative work that required consent from the owners of the songs. But distinguishing this from a compilation, the district court explained: “While it is true that preexisting songs are incorporated throughout the Show, no particular song 'pervades' the Show so as to transform the Show into a derivative work of that song. … No aspect of the [Caffey] copyright purports to claim rights in the underlying songs themselves.”

The vocalists next argued that they were joint authors of the copyright. But ultimately finding infringement, the district court emphasized: “[B]y a preponderance of evidence … the parties ' and in particular, Caffey ' lacked the requisite intent to be joint authors at the time the Show was created. The decisionmaking authority wielded by Caffey, the written agreements between the parties explicitly acknowledging Caffey as the conceiver of the show[, t]he written agreements between defendants and the Receiver providing for author royalties payable to Caffey, and defendants' actual payment of author royalties overwhelmingly support the view that Caffey did not intend to share authorship of the Show with defendants.

Live Performance/Ticket Prices

A theater could offer age-based ticket discounts, the Court of Appeal of California, Fourth Appellate District, decided. Pizarro v. Lamb's Players Theatre, D045890. A San Diego theater produced a musical titled “Boomers” and advertised it as the “Musical Revue of a Generation.” People born between 1946 and 1964 were offered tickets at half-price for Wednesday-evening shows. Theatre-goers who weren't in that age group filed suit. The court noted that the applicable test on the plaintiffs' claim of age discrimination under Calif. Civ. Code Sec. 51 was whether the “Boomer” discounts were based on an arbitrary class-based generalization.

The Court of Appeal concluded: “This age-based discount is permissible as reasonable and not arbitrary. A reason given by defendant for providing the discount admission to 'baby-boomers' was to encourage attendance at a family-based entertainment event. … Because a theater ticket discount allows greater access to the theater, public policy favors the disparate treatment, whether the discount is made available to children, seniors or boomers. … As a result of this lack of job security and corresponding lack of disposable income, the 'baby-boomer' generation will benefit from price discounts on family-oriented pastimes, as do children and seniors.”

Minimal bridge dialogue and the selection and ordering of pre-existing musical compositions was sufficient for the stage production “The Three Mo' Tenors” to be an original compilation eligible for copyright protection, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York decided. Caffey v. Cook, 04 Civ. 313 (RJH). Writer/choreographer/director Marion Caffey conceived the idea for a stage musical featuring African-American tenors performing different musical styles. He then approached Victor Cook, Rodrick Dixon and Thomas Young to be the show's tenors. Caffey and the three vocalists collaborated in developing the show, which included several songs from the singers' repertoire. Caffey then put 32 songs in order and wrote 1.5 pages of text to be inserted between the performances of the compositions. The three vocalists signed engagement agreements that cited their efforts as work for hire. Caffey later registered as copyright in his name “The Three Mo' Tenors” show as a “creation of text of dialogue in combination with a compilation of song lyrics.” After experiencing financial problems, the Three Mo' Partnership, formed to produce the show and including Caffey but not the three vocalists as partners, was placed into receivership. After fulfilling commitments for previously booked shows, the vocalists toured as Cook, Dixon & Young performing without Caffey's consent what was effectively “The Three Mo' Tenors.”

When Caffey sued for copyright infringement, the defendants claimed that show was a derivative work that required consent from the owners of the songs. But distinguishing this from a compilation, the district court explained: “While it is true that preexisting songs are incorporated throughout the Show, no particular song 'pervades' the Show so as to transform the Show into a derivative work of that song. … No aspect of the [Caffey] copyright purports to claim rights in the underlying songs themselves.”

The vocalists next argued that they were joint authors of the copyright. But ultimately finding infringement, the district court emphasized: “[B]y a preponderance of evidence … the parties ' and in particular, Caffey ' lacked the requisite intent to be joint authors at the time the Show was created. The decisionmaking authority wielded by Caffey, the written agreements between the parties explicitly acknowledging Caffey as the conceiver of the show[, t]he written agreements between defendants and the Receiver providing for author royalties payable to Caffey, and defendants' actual payment of author royalties overwhelmingly support the view that Caffey did not intend to share authorship of the Show with defendants.