Cameo Clips

The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, Nashville Division, ruled that the alleged digital transmission of 308 sound recordings containing a total of 215 musical compositions would constitute 215, rather than 308, acts of infringement. MCS Music America Inc. v. Yahoo! Inc., 09-cv-00597. The plaintiffs claimed to own the songs, but not the sound recordings, at issue.

District Judge Todd J. Campbell noted: “Plaintiffs contend that, for example, each of the eight different recordings or versions of John McCutcheon's copyrighted musical composition entitled 'Christmas In The Trenches' that were copied, displayed and distributed by [d]efendant Yahoo! Inc. on its music subscription service constitutes eight separate works under the Copyright Act and therefore constitutes eight separate possible statutory awards.” But the district judge explained: “[E]ven though each musical composition is a distinct, viable work with separate economic value and copyright lives of their own, any variation of that 'work' is still simply one 'work' for the purposes of statutory damages. To the extent a disputed musical composition is actually a different musical composition, it is a separate work which requires a separate registration to recover statutory damages. To the extent a sound recording embodies a musical composition and is a separate 'work,' [p]laintiffs must possess ownership and registration of those copyrights to be entitled to any statutory damages. A sound recording that is simply a variation of a copyrighted musical composition does not in and of itself make it a separate 'work' for which statutory damages may be awarded.”