Bit Parts

The U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona decided in a music file-sharing case that the phrase 'offering to distribute,' included in defining the term 'publication' in Sec. 101 of the Copyright Act, doesn't amount to a 'distribution' under Sec. 106(3) of the Act. Atlantic Recording Corp. v. Howell, CV-06-02076-PHX-NVW. '[A] distribution must involve a 'sale or other transfer of ownership' or a 'rental, lease, or lending' of a copy of the work. The recording companies have not proved an actual distribution of 42 of the copyrighted sound recordings at issue,' the district court noted. The court went on to find: 'The recording companies motion for summary judgment also fails because they have not proved that a KaZaA user who places a copyrighted work into the shared folder distributes a copy of that work when a third-party downloads it. ' If the owner of the shared folder simply provides a member of the public with access to the work and the means to make an unauthorized copy, the owner is not liable as a primary infringer of the distribution right, but rather is potentially liable as a secondary infringer of the reproduction right.'

Copyright Infringement/Summary Judgment

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California dismissed a suit alleging that the animated show 'SpongeBob SquarePants' infringed on the plaintiff's limited-publication, four-panel comic strip 'Mr. Bob Spongee, The Unemployed Sponge.' Walker v. Viacom International Inc., C 06-4931 SI. The district court determined 'that the similarities between the two characters are limited to the stock elements used to humanize a sponge, and that the dissimilarities are so significant that, as a matter of law, defendants are entitled to summary judgment on plaintiff's claim of copyright infringement. In addition, defendants have submitted extensive and undisputed evidence of defendants' independent creation of SpongeBob SquarePants.'

Music Agreements/New-Technology Uses