Steinberg v. Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc.
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''Steinberg v. Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc.'', 663
F. Supp. The ''Federal Supplement'' ( is a case law reporter published by West Publishing in the United States that includes select opinions of the United States district courts since 1932, and is part of the National Reporter System. Although the ''Fed ...
706 (
S.D.N.Y. The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (in case citations, S.D.N.Y.) is a federal trial court whose geographic jurisdiction encompasses eight counties of New York State. Two of these are in New York City: New ...
1987) was a federal case in which artist
Saul Steinberg Saul Steinberg (June 15, 1914 – May 12, 1999) was a Romanian-American artist, best known for his work for ''The New Yorker'', most notably ''View of the World from 9th Avenue''. He described himself as "a writer who draws". Biography Ste ...
sued various parties involved with producing and promoting the
1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast A ...
movie ''
Moscow on the Hudson ''Moscow on the Hudson'' is a 1984 American romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Paul Mazursky which stars Robin Williams as a Soviet circus musician who defects while on a visit to the United States. It co-stars María Conchita ...
'', claiming that a promotional poster for the movie infringed his
copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...
in a magazine cover, ''
View of the World from 9th Avenue ''View of the World from 9th Avenue'' (sometimes ''A Parochial New Yorker's View of the World'', ''A New Yorker's View of the World'' or simply ''View of the World'') is a 1976 illustration by Saul Steinberg that served as the cover of the Marc ...
'', he had created for ''
The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
''.


Procedural posture

The case was heard in the Southern District of
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...
in front of Judge Louis L. Stanton. The defendants, including
Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...
Industries, Inc.,
RCA Corporation The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...
, and several major newspapers, denied Steinberg's allegations of copyright infringement and asserted the affirmative defenses of (1) fair use as a
parody A parody, also known as a spoof, a satire, a send-up, a take-off, a lampoon, a play on (something), or a caricature, is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satiric or ironic imitation. Often its subj ...
, (2)
estoppel Estoppel is a judicial device in common law legal systems whereby a court may prevent or "estop" a person from making assertions or from going back on his or her word; the person being sanctioned is "estopped". Estoppel may prevent someone from ...
, and (3) laches. Both parties moved for summary judgment.


Outcome

The court granted
summary judgment In law, a summary judgment (also judgment as a matter of law or summary disposition) is a judgment entered by a court A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes ...
to Steinberg on the issue of copyright infringement, finding that the defendants failed to prove any of their defenses.


The two images

The subject of the controversy was a drawing by Steinberg known as ''
View of the World from 9th Avenue ''View of the World from 9th Avenue'' (sometimes ''A Parochial New Yorker's View of the World'', ''A New Yorker's View of the World'' or simply ''View of the World'') is a 1976 illustration by Saul Steinberg that served as the cover of the Marc ...
'' or ''A Parochial New Yorker's View of the World.'' The drawing, which appeared on the cover of the March 29, 1976 issue of ''The New Yorker'', depicts four city blocks of
Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
in great detail, with the rest of the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
and the world sketched sparsely in the background. The horizon is marked by a red line, and a thin blue wash of color at the top denotes the sky. At the top is the name of the magazine, in its characteristic font. ''The New Yorker'' registered the image with the
United States Copyright Office The United States Copyright Office (USCO), a part of the Library of Congress, is a United States government body that maintains records of copyright registration, including a copyright catalog. It is used by copyright title searchers who are ...
and assigned the copyright to Steinberg. About three months later, the magazine made an agreement to print and sell posters of the image. The ''
Moscow on the Hudson ''Moscow on the Hudson'' is a 1984 American romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Paul Mazursky which stars Robin Williams as a Soviet circus musician who defects while on a visit to the United States. It co-stars María Conchita ...
'' poster featured the movie's lead actor
Robin Williams Robin McLaurin Williams (July 21, 1951August 11, 2014) was an American actor and comedian. Known for his improvisational skills and the wide variety of characters he created on the spur of the moment and portrayed on film, in dramas and come ...
and his two co-stars at the bottom of the frame, with a highly detailed depiction of four city blocks of Manhattan behind them. In the background is a blue stripe representing the
Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...
, three landmarks denoting cities in Europe, and a set of Russian-looking buildings labeled "
Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
". Again, the horizon is marked by a red line, and the sky by a thin blue wash of color. At the top is the name of the movie, in the same font used by ''The New Yorker''. The poster image was published as an advertisement in many newspapers across the country.


The issue of copying

The court states the rule for infringement as follows: "To succeed in a copyright infringement action, a plaintiff must prove ownership of the copyright and copying by the defendant." As there was no dispute over whether Steinberg owned a valid copyright in his image, the only issue to be decided was whether the defendants had copied the image when they created the movie poster. To determine whether the defendants had copied the image, the court turned to circumstantial evidence of access and substantial similarities between the two works. The court found ample evidence of the defendants' access to the copyrighted work; indeed, the defendants admitted at trial that they had used Steinberg’s poster as inspiration for their own. As to the question of "substantial similarity" between the two works, the court asked "whether an average lay observer would recognize the alleged copy as having been appropriated from the copyrighted work." Although it acknowledged that the idea of drawing a world map "from an egocentrically myopic perspective" could not be copyrighted, the court nevertheless held that the defendants had gone far beyond copying merely the idea of the Steinberg poster and had in fact copied its expression. As examples, the court cited the angle, layout, and details of the four city blocks depicted; the use of color on the horizon and sky; the distinctive lettering used in both for place names as well as the title at the top; and the overall stylistic impression of the two works. The court rejected the argument that any similarity between the works involved unprotectable
scènes à faire A ''scène à faire'' ( French for "scene to be made" or "scene that must be done"; plural: ''scènes à faire'') is a scene in a book or film which is almost obligatory for a book or film in that genre. In the U.S. it also refers to a principle ...
, or standard themes common to any depiction of
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...
.


Defenses

The court held that the ''Moscow on the Hudson'' poster was not a
parody A parody, also known as a spoof, a satire, a send-up, a take-off, a lampoon, a play on (something), or a caricature, is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satiric or ironic imitation. Often its subj ...
because it was not meant to
satirize Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or ...
the Steinberg image itself, but merely satirized the same concept of the parochial New Yorker that was parodied by Steinberg's work. Because the copyrighted work was not an object of the parody, the appropriation of the image was not
fair use Fair use is a doctrine in United States law that permits limited use of copyrighted material without having to first acquire permission from the copyright holder. Fair use is one of the limitations to copyright intended to balance the interests ...
. The defendants also argued that Steinberg was
estopped Estoppel is a judicial device in common law legal systems whereby a court may prevent or "estop" a person from making assertions or from going back on his or her word; the person being sanctioned is "estopped". Estoppel may prevent someone from ...
from defending his copyright on the grounds that he had taken no action over a period of eight years to stop others from counterfeiting his posters and adapting his idea to other locations, and had not acted in response to newspaper ads promoting the movie. The court rejected this argument, holding that the defendants had not proved any of the elements of estoppel: (1) a representation in fact; (2) reasonable reliance thereon; and (3) injury or damage resulting from denial by the party making the representation. While the defendants argued that Steinberg had made a representation of his acquiescence to their use of his image in the movie poster by not complaining about the ads in the newspaper, the judge rejected this line of reasoning and noted that the defendants had continued to use the infringing advertisements even after becoming aware of Steinberg's objections. Further, there was no existing relationship between the parties that could give rise to estoppel. Finally, the defendants claimed the
affirmative defense An affirmative defense to a civil lawsuit or criminal charge is a fact or set of facts other than those alleged by the plaintiff or prosecutor which, if proven by the defendant, defeats or mitigates the legal consequences of the defendant's o ...
of laches, asserting that Steinberg had waited over six months to complain to Columbia Pictures about the alleged infringement in order to increase his award in the eventual lawsuit. The court dismissed this allegation on the grounds that Steinberg had registered his complaint with the defendants within weeks of beginning their advertising campaign, and that a six-month delay between publication of the allegedly infringing work and instigation of a lawsuit was not sufficient to establish a claim of laches.


Test for copyright infringement

The court states the test for copyright infringement as copying an item that is the subject of a valid copyright, making no mention of improper appropriation of protectable elements, or in fact any distinction between protectable and unprotectable elements of Steinberg's drawing. This is in contrast to the 2nd Circuit's prior opinion in
Nichols v. Universal Pictures Corp. ''Nichols v. Universal Pictures Corporation'', 45 F.2d 119 ( 2d Cir. 1930), was a United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit case on copyright infringement by non-literal copying of a dramatic work. The Court held that copyright protect ...
, 45 F.2d 119 (1930), that infringement occurs only when there is copying and improper appropriation. The Nichols decision held that appropriation was not improper when the alleged infringer copied only unprotectable elements of the original work. Therefore, while it is appropriate to look at both protectable and unprotectable elements of a work to determine whether copying has occurred, only the protectable elements are relevant when it comes to determining improper appropriation.


External links

* {{Columbia Pictures 1987 in United States case law United States copyright case law United States District Court for the Southern District of New York cases Columbia Pictures