Cameo Clips

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit decided that an album constitutes one “work” for purposes of awarding statutory damages to copyright plaintiffs. Bryant v. Media Right Productions Inc., 09-2600-cv. Songwriters Anne Bryant and Ellen Bernfeld, and their self-owned record label Gloryvision, sued after their albums Songs for Dogs and Songs for Cats were sold through digital downloads by Orchard Enterprises. The plaintiffs had entered into an agreement for Media Right Productions to market physical copies of the albums. Media Right then entered into an agreement with the Orchard for the “non-exclusive rights to sell, distribute and otherwise exploit” the albums “by any and all means and media (whether now known or existing in the future), including ' via the Internet, as well as all digital storage, download and transmission rights, whether now known or existing in the future.”

The Bryant plaintiffs sought statutory damages for each of the songs on their two albums. United States District Judge Kimba M. Wood, sitting by designation, noted for the appeals court that the plaintiffs/appellants argued “each song has 'independent economic value': [I]nternet customers could listen to and purchase copies of each song, each of which Appellants claim was independently copyrighted.” But Judge Wood emphasized that the Second Circuit “has never adopted the independent economic value test, and we decline to do so in this case. ' We cannot disregard the statutory language [of 17 U.S.C. '504(c)(1) that states a compilation, such as an album, is one 'work'] simply because digital music has made it easier for infringers to make parts of an album available separately.”