448 F.3d 1134448 F.3d 1134, 2006 Daily Journal D.A.R. 6352, 06 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 4308, 78 U.S.P.Q.2d 1910 United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Debra LAWS, Plaintiff-Appellant,v.SONY MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT, INC., d/b/a Epic Records, a Delaware
corporation,Defendant-Appellee.No. 03-57102. Argued and Submitted Sept. 12, 2005.Filed May 24, 2006.
*1135 Rickey Ivie and Kendall E. James
of Ivie, McNeill & Wyatt, Los Angeles, CA, for Plaintiff-Appellant. Russell
J. Frackman, David A. Steinberg, and Paul Guelpa of Mitchell, Silberberg &
Knupp, LLP, Los Angeles, CA, for Defendant-Appellee.
Appeal from the United States District
Court for the Central District of California; Lourdes G. Baird, District Judge,
Presiding. D.C. No. CV-03-02038-LGB.
Before FARRIS, FERNANDEZ, and BYBEE,
Circuit Judges. BYBEE, Circuit Judge. Plaintiff Debra Laws (“Laws”) brought
suit against defendant Sony Music Entertainment, Inc. (“Sony”) for
misappropriating her voice and name in the song “All I Have” by Jennifer Lopez
and L.L. Cool J. The district court found that Sony had obtained a license to
use a sample of Laws’s recording of “Very Special” and *1136 held that Laws’s
claims for violation of her common law right to privacy and her statutory right
of publicity were preempted by the Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. § 101-1332. We agree with the district court that the
Copyright Act preempts Laws’s claims, and we affirm.
I. FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS
In 1979, professional vocalist and
recording artist Debra Laws and Spirit Productions (“Spirit”) entered into a
recording agreement with Elektra/Asylum Records (“Elektra”) to produce master
recordings of Laws’s vocal performances for Elektra. The agreement gave Elektra the “sole and exclusive right to
copyright such master recordings” and “the exclusive worldwide right in
perpetuity ... to lease, license, convey or otherwise use or dispose of such
master recordings.” Elektra also secured the right “to use and to permit others
to use your name, the Artist’s name ... likeness, other identification, and
biographical material concerning the Artist ... in connection with such master
recordings.” Notwithstanding these provisions, Elektra agreed that “ we shall
not, without your prior written consent, utilize or authorize others to utilize
the Masters in any so-called ‘audio-visual’ or ‘sight and sound’ devices
intended primarily for home use,” and “we or our licensees shall not, without
your prior written consent, sell records embodying the Masters hereunder for
use as premiums or in connection with the sale, advertising or promotion of any
other product or service.” In 1981, Laws recorded the song “Very Special,”
which was released on Laws’s album on the Elektra label. Elektra copyrighted the song that same
year.
In November 2002, Elektra’s agent,
Warner Special Products, Inc., entered into an agreement with Sony Music
Entertainment, Inc. (“Sony”) to grant Sony a non-exclusive license to use a
sample of Debra Laws’s recording of “Very Special” in the song “All I Have,”
performed by recording artists Jennifer Lopez and L.L. Cool J. The agreement
required Sony to include a credit stating, “Featuring samples from the Debra
Laws recording ‘Very Special’ “ in any reproduction. Warner, Elektra’s agent, did not seek permission from Laws or
Spirit before it released the disc and video, and neither Laws nor Spirit was
compensated.
Sony subsequently released a Jennifer
Lopez compact disc and music video incorporating brief samples of “Very
Special” into her recording of “All I Have.” The sampled portions include a
segment approximately ten seconds in length at the beginning of “All I Have,”
and shorter segments repeated in the background throughout the song. Sony included the required credit in the
booklet accompanying the compact disc.
The song and Lopez’s album, “This is Me ... Then,” became a huge
commercial success, netting over forty-million dollars. At one time “All I Have” was the number one
song in the United States.
In February 2003, Laws brought an
action in the Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles, alleging
multiple claims. The two claims
relevant to this appeal were: (1) a common law claim for invasion of privacy for
the misappropriation of Laws’s name and voice and (2) a claim for
misappropriation of Laws’s name and voice for a commercial purpose under
California Civil Code § 3344. The
complaint sought injunctive and monetary relief.
Sony removed the case to the United
States District Court for the Central District of California and sought to join
Elektra as a necessary party. The
court denied the motion. Sony filed a
summary judgment motion, which the district court granted, ruling that both of
Laws’s misappropriation claims were preempted by the Copyright Act. Laws filed
a timely appeal.
*1137 II. STANDARD OF REVIEW
A grant of summary judgment is reviewed
de novo. See Buono v. Norton, 371 F.3d
543, 545 (9th Cir.2004). We must view
the evidence in the light most favorable to Laws and determine whether there is
any genuine issue of material fact and whether the district court properly
applied the relevant substantive law.
See Olsen v. Idaho State Bd. of Med., 363 F.3d 916, 922 (9th Cir.2004). Summary judgment may be affirmed on any
ground supported by the record. Id.
[1][2] We review de novo whether a
federal law preempts a state law. See
Radici v. Associated Ins. Cos., 217 F.3d 737, 740 (9th Cir.2000). The district court’s interpretation of
state law is also reviewed de novo.
See Rabkin v. Or. Health Scis. Univ., 350 F.3d 967, 970 (9th Cir.2003).
III. ANALYSIS
The Copyright Clause of the U.S.
Constitution provides that “Congress shall have the Power ... To promote the
Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors
and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and
Discoveries....” U.S. Const. art. I, § 8, cl. 8. Pursuant to this authority,
Congress enacted the Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. § 101-1332, to define and protect
the rights of copyright holders. Under
the Act, “the owner of copyright ... has the exclusive rights to do and to
authorize” others to display, perform, reproduce or distribute copies of the
work, and to prepare derivative works.
Id. § 106. The copyright is the
right to control the work, including the decision to make the work available to
or withhold it from the public.
Sections 301(a) and (b) of Title 17
describe when the Act preempts legal and equitable rights granted by state
common law or statute. Section (a)
states: On and after January 1, 1978, all legal and equitable rights that are
equivalent to any of the exclusive rights within the general scope of copyright
as specified by section 106 in works of authorship that are fixed in a tangible
medium of expression and come within the subject matter of copyright as
specified by sections 102 and 103 ... are governed exclusively by this
title. Thereafter, no person is
entitled to any such right or equivalent right in any such work under the
common law or statutes of any State.
Id. § 301(a). Section (b) states: Nothing in this title annuls or limits any
rights or remedies under the common law or statutes of any State with respect
to ... subject matter that does not come within the subject matter of copyright
as specified by sections 102 and 103, including works of authorship not fixed
in any tangible medium of expression....
Id. § 301(b) (2000). Congress explained what the statute made
obvious: “[t]he intention of section 301 is to preempt and abolish any rights
under the common law or statutes of a State that are equivalent to copyright
and that extend to works, within the scope of the Federal copyright law.”
H.R.Rep. No. 94-1476, at 130 (1976); see also Maljack Prods. v. GoodTimes Home Video Corp., 81 F.3d 881, 888
(9th Cir.1996).
[3] We have adopted a two-part test to
determine whether a state law claim is preempted by the Act. We must first
determine whether the “subject matter” of the state law claim falls within the
subject matter of copyright as described in 17 U.S.C. §§ 102 ^FN1 and 103.^FN2
Second, assuming*1138 that it does, we must determine whether the rights
asserted under state law are equivalent to the rights contained in 17 U.S.C. §
106, which articulates the exclusive rights of copyright holders.^FN3 See
Downing v. Abercrombie & Fitch,
265 F.3d 994, 1003 (9th Cir.2001).
FN1. § 102. Subject matter of copyright: In general (a) Copyright
protection subsists, in accordance with this title, in original works of
authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression, now known or later
developed, from which they can be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise
communicated, either directly or with the aid of a machine or device. Works of authorship include the following
categories: (1) literary works; (2) musical works, including any accompanying
words; (3) dramatic works, including any accompanying music; (4) pantomimes and
choreographic works; (5) pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works; (6) motion
pictures and other audiovisual works; (7) sound recordings; and (8)
architectural works. FN2. § 103.
Subject matter of copyright: Compilations and derivative works (a) The subject
matter of copyright as specified by section 102 includes compilations and derivative
works, but protection for a work employing preexisting material in which
copyright subsists does not extend to any part of the work in which such
material has been used unlawfully. (b)
The copyright in a compilation or derivative work extends only to the material
contributed by the author of such work, as distinguished from the preexisting
material employed in the work, and does not imply any exclusive right in the
preexisting material. The copyright in
such work is independent of, and does not affect or enlarge the scope,
duration, ownership, or subsistence of, any copyright protection in the
preexisting material. FN3. § 106.
Exclusive rights in copyrighted works Subject to sections 107 through 122, the
owner of copyright under this title has the exclusive rights to do and to
authorize any of the following: (1) to reproduce the copyrighted work in copies
or phonorecords; (2) to prepare derivative works based upon the copyrighted
work; (3) to distribute copies or phonorecords of the copyrighted work to the
public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending;
(4) in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works,
pantomimes, and motion pictures and other audiovisual works, to perform the
copyrighted work publicly; (5) in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and
choreographic works, pantomimes, and pictorial, graphic, or sculptural works,
including the individual images of a motion picture or other audiovisual work,
to display the copyrighted work publicly; and (6) in the case of sound recordings,
to perform the copyrighted work publicly by means of a digital audio
transmission.
[4][5] Laws alleges two causes of
action. First, she asserts a claim for
protection of her voice, name and likeness under California’s common law right
of privacy. To sustain this action,
Laws must prove: “(1) the defendant’s use of the plaintiff’s identity; (2) the
appropriation of plaintiff’s name or likeness to defendant’s advantage,
commercially or otherwise; (3) lack of consent; and (4) resulting injury.” Eastwood
v. Superior Court, 149 Cal.App.3d 409, 198 Cal.Rptr. 342, 347 (1983),
superseded by statute on other grounds as stated in KNB Enters. v. Matthews, 78
Cal.App.4th 362, 92 Cal.Rptr.2d 713 (2000); see also Downing, 265 F.3d at 1001. Second, Laws asserts a statutory
misappropriation or “right of publicity” claim under California Civil Code §
3344(a), which provides that: Any person who knowingly uses another’s name,
voice, signature, photograph, or likeness, in any manner, on or in products,
merchandise, or goods, or for purposes of advertising or selling, or soliciting
purchases of, products, merchandise, goods or services, without such person’s
prior consent ... shall be liable for
any damages sustained by the person*1139 or persons injured as a result
thereof.
We have observed that “[t]he remedies
provided for under California Civil Code § 3344 complement the common law cause
of action; they do not replace or codify the common law.” Downing, 265 F.3d at
1001. Nevertheless, for purposes of
our preemption analysis, section 3344 includes the elements of the common law
cause of action. See id. (“Under section 3344, a plaintiff must prove
all the elements of the common law cause of action” plus “knowing use” and “a
direct connection between the alleged use and the commercial purpose.” ). For convenience’s sake, we will refer to
Laws’s claims as “right of publicity” claims.
Sony does not argue that common law
privacy actions and statutory claims under section 3344 are preempted generally
by section 301; rather, it argues that they are preempted as applied to the
facts of this case. We thus turn to
(1) whether the subject matter of Laws’s right of publicity claims comes within
the subject matter of copyright, and (2) whether the rights Laws asserts under
California law are equivalent to those created under the Copyright Act.
A. The “Subject Matter” of Copyright
We first consider whether the subject
matter of Laws’s misappropriation claim is within the subject matter of the
Copyright Act. We conclude that it is.
Sections 102 and 103 of the Act identify the works of authorship that
constitute the “subject matter” of copyright.
Section 102 of the Act extends copyright protection to “original works
of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression ... from which they
can be ... reproduced, ... either
directly or with the aid of a machine or device.” 17 U.S.C. § 102(a). That section defines a “work of authorship”
to include “sound recordings.” Id. § 102(a)(7). ”A work is ‘fixed’ in a tangible medium of expression when its
embodiment in a copy or phonorecord, by or under the authority of the author,
is sufficiently permanent or stable to permit it to be perceived, reproduced,
or otherwise communicated for a period of more than transitory duration.” Id. §
101. Laws’s master recordings held by
Elektra are plainly within these definitions.
Laws nevertheless contends that the
subject matter of a copyright claim and a right of publicity claim are
substantively different. She argues
that a copyright claim protects ownership rights to a work of art, while a
right of publicity claim concerns the right to protect one’s persona and
likeness. Sony, by contrast, contends
that the subject matter of a right of publicity in one’s voice is not different
from a copyright claim when the voice is embodied within a copyrighted sound
recording. Sony argues that once a
voice becomes part of a sound recording in a fixed tangible medium it comes
within the subject matter of copyright law.
Our jurisprudence provides strong
guidance to the resolution of this question.
In Sinatra v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., 435 F.2d 711 (9th
Cir.1970), Nancy Sinatra filed suit against Goodyear Tire on the basis of an
advertising campaign that featured “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’,” a song
that Sinatra made famous. Goodyear
Tire had obtained a license from the copyright proprietor for the use of music,
lyrics, and arrangement of the composition.
Goodyear Tire subsequently used the music and lyrics in its ads, which
were sung by unknown vocalists. She
alleged the song had taken on a “secondary meaning” that was uniquely injurious
to her. We rejected her claim:
[A]ppellant’s complaint is not that her sound is uniquely personal; it is that
the sound in connection with the music, lyrics and arrangement, which made her
the subject of popular identification, *1140 ought to be protected. But as to these latter copyrightable items
she had no rights. Presumably, she was
required to obtain permission of the copyright owner to sing “Boots”, and to
make an arrangement of the song to suit her own tastes and talents. Had she desired to exclude all others from
use of the song so that her “ secondary meaning” with the song could not be
imitated she could have purchased those rights from the copyright
proprietor. One wonders whether her
voice ... would have been identifiable if another song had been presented, and
not “her song,” which unfortunately for her was owned by others and licensed to
the defendants.
Id. at 716. Although Sinatra was decided prior to passage of the modern-day
preemption provision in section 301, we nonetheless ruled that the Copyright
Act impliedly preempted Sinatra’s state law claim. Id. at 717-18. We later
confirmed this holding in Midler v. Ford Motor Co., 849 F.2d 460, 462 (9th
Cir.1988), when we observed that “[t]o give Sinatra damages for [defendants’]
use of the song would clash with federal copyright law.”
In Midler, recording and performing
artist Bette Midler filed suit against an advertising agency and its client
when a professional “sound alike” was used to imitate Midler’s voice from her
hit song “Do You Want to Dance.” The agency did not acquire a license to use
Midler’s recording; instead, it had obtained a license from the song’s
copyright holder and then attempted to get Midler to do the commercial. When Midler’s agent advised the agency that
she was not interested, the agency hired someone who had been a backup singer
for Midler and could imitate her voice and style. Indeed, the singer was instructed to sound as much like Bette
Midler as possible. We held that
Midler’s common law misappropriation claim was not preempted by copyright law
because the “thing” misappropriated, her voice, was not copyrightable in that
instance. We explained: Midler does
not seek damages for [the defendant’s] use of “Do You Want To Dance,” and thus
her claim is not preempted by federal copyright law. Copyright protects “original works of authorship fixed in any
tangible medium of expression.” A voice is not copyrightable. The sounds are not “fixed.” What is put
forward as protectible here is more personal than any work of authorship.
Id. at 462 (citation omitted). What Midler sought was relief from an
unauthorized vocal imitation for advertising purposes, and that was not the
subject of copyright.
We subsequently applied Midler in Waits
v. Frito-Lay, Inc., 978 F.2d 1093 (9th Cir.1992). The voice of Tom Waits, a professional singer, songwriter, and
actor, was imitated and then broadcast in a commercial for Frito-Lay. Waits filed a right of publicity claim
under California law. We held that the
claim was not preempted by copyright law because it was “for infringement of
voice, not for infringement of a copyrightable subject such as sound recording
or musical composition.” Id. at 1100.
Thus, the issues in Waits were “ whether the defendants had deliberately
imitated Waits’ voice rather than simply his style and whether Waits’ voice was
sufficiently distinctive and widely known to give him a protectible right in
its use. These elements are ‘different
in kind’ from those in a copyright infringement case challenging the
unauthorized use of a song or recording.” Id.
In this case, Laws’s voice
misappropriation claim is plainly different from the claims in Midler and Waits
and falls within the subject matter of copyright. In contrast to Midler and Waits, where the licensing party
obtained only a license to the song and then imitated the artist’s *1141 voice,
here Sony obtained a license to use Laws’s recording itself. Sony was not imitating “Very Special” as
Laws might have sung it. Rather, it
used a portion of “Very Special” as sung by Debra Laws. See also Brown v. Ames, 201 F.3d 654, 658 (5th Cir.2000) (“The
crucial difference between [this case and Daboub v. Gibbons, 42 F.3d 285 (5th
Cir.1995) ] is that in Daboub the basis of the misappropriation claim ... was
the song itself, bringing it within section 301’s ambit, whereas here the basis
of the misappropriation claim was defendants’ use of plaintiffs’ names and/or
likenesses.”).
[6] Laws does not dispute Sony’s
contention that the recording of “Very Special” was a copyrighted sound
recording fixed in a tangible medium of expression. Laws’s right of publicity claim is based exclusively on what she
claims is an unauthorized duplication of her vocal performance of the song “
Very Special.” Although California law recognizes an assertable interest in the
publicity associated with one’s voice, we think it is clear that federal copyright
law preempts a claim alleging misappropriation of one’s voice when the entirety
of the allegedly misappropriated vocal performance is contained within a
copyrighted medium. Our conclusion is
consistent with our holdings in Midler and Waits, where we concluded that the
voice misappropriation claim was not preempted, because the alleged
misappropriation was the imitation of the plaintiffs’ voices. Neither of those imitations was contained
in a copyrighted vocal performance.
Moreover, the fact that the vocal performance was copyrighted
demonstrates that what is put forth here as protectible is not “more personal
than any work of authorship.” Midler, 849 F.2d at 462.
Laws points to two cases for
support. Both cases, however, involve
photographs used in advertising, and are distinguishable from this case. In Downing, 265 F.3d 994, we held that a
claim based on the right of publicity was not preempted by the Copyright Act.
In Downing, retailer Abercrombie & Fitch was developing a surfing theme-”Surf
Nekkid”-for its subscription catalog.
Abercrombie published a photo of the plaintiffs, who were participants
in a surf championship in Hawaii in 1965.
Abercrombie ran the photo, which it had purchased from the photographer
(who held the copyright), and it identified the plaintiffs by name. Abercrombie went well beyond mere
republication of the photograph.
Without obtaining plaintiffs’ consent to use their names and images, it
also offered t-shirts exactly like those worn by the plaintiffs in the
photo. We noted that the photograph
itself was within the subject matter protected by the Copyright Act. But
Abercrombie had not merely published the photograph. Rather, it published the photo in connection with a broad
surf-themed advertising campaign, identified the plaintiffs-surfers by name,
and offered for sale the same t-shirts worn by the plaintiffs in the
photo. By doing so, it had suggested
that the surfers had endorsed Abercrombie’s t-shirts. Accordingly, we concluded that “it is not the publication of the
photograph itself, as a creative work of authorship, that is the basis
for[plaintiffs’] claims, but rather, it is the use of the [plaintiffs’]
likenesses and their names pictured in the published photograph. “ Id. at 1003;
see also Brown, 201 F.3d at 656-57 (no preemption where the record company used
the names and likenesses of musicians, song writers, and producers on compact
disks, tapes, catalogs and posters).
We thus concluded that the claim was not within the subject matter of copyright
because “[a] person’s name or likeness is not a work of authorship within the
meaning of 17 U.S.C. § 102.” Downing, 265 F.3d at 1004.
Laws also relies on a second case,
*1142Toney v. L’Oreal USA, Inc., 406 F.3d 905 (7th Cir.2005), in which the Seventh
Circuit held that a claim under the Illinois Right of Publicity Act was not
preempted by the Copyright Act. Toney
was a model who had posed for photographs used to promote hair-care products on
packaging and in national advertisements.
Defendants owned the copyright for the photograph of Toney that was
used, and had a right to use it from November 1995 to November 2000; any other
use would be negotiated separately. In
apparent violation of their understanding, defendants continued to use the photographs
in their advertising beyond 2000.
Toney alleged that this use violated her right of publicity under
Illinois law. The Seventh Circuit
concluded that Toney’s identity is not fixed in a tangible medium of
expression. There is no “work of authorship” at issue in Toney’s right of
publicity claim. A person’s
likeness-her persona-is not authored and it is not fixed. The fact that an image of the person might
be fixed in a copyrightable photograph does not change this.... The fact that
the photograph itself could be copyrighted, and that defendants owned the
copyright to the photograph that was used, is irrelevant to the [right of
publicity] claim.... The defendants did not have her consent to continue to use
the photograph....
Id. at 910. The fact that the photograph was copyrighted could not negate
the fact that Toney had reserved artistic control over her image for any period
beyond the contractual time frame. The
Seventh Circuit concluded that Toney’s claim was not preempted.^FN4
FN4. Toney differs from this case in a significant way: Toney
brought her right of publicity claim against L’Oreal U.S.A., Inc., the Wella
Corp., and Wella Personal Care of North America, Inc., which each at some point
held the copyright and had agreed not to use Toney’s likeness after 2000. The facts of this case would be analogous
to Toney if Laws had brought her right of publicity claim against Elektra,
which holds the copyright to the song and may have agreed to licensing
limitations. We express no views on
the correctness of Toney or its application to any claims against Elektra.
In contrast, Jennifer Lopez’s song “All
I Have” incorporated samples of Deborah Laws’s “Very Special” and gave her the
attribution negotiated by Elektra and Sony. Sony did not use Laws’s image,
name, or the voice recording in any promotional materials. Her state tort action challenges control of
the artistic work itself and could hardly be more closely related to the
subject matter of the Copyright Act.
We find more to the point, and quite
persuasive, the California Court of Appeal’s decision in Fleet v. CBS, Inc., 50
Cal.App.4th 1911, 58 Cal.Rptr.2d 645 (1996).
There, defendant CBS owned the exclusive rights to distribute a motion picture
in which plaintiffs performed. A third
party who financed the operation of the movie refused to pay plaintiffs their
previously agreed-to salaries.
Plaintiffs brought suit against CBS alleging, inter alia, that by airing
the motion picture using their names, pictures, and likenesses without their
consent, CBS had violated their statutory right of publicity. The Court of Appeal held that the Copyright
Act preempted the action. As the court
observed, “it was not merely [plaintiffs’] likenesses which were captured on
film-it was their dramatic performances which are ... copyrightable.” Id. at 651.
”[O]nce [plaintiffs’] performances were put on film, they became
‘dramatic work[s]’ ‘fixed in[a] tangible medium of expression....’ At that
point, the performances came within the scope or subject matter of copyright
law protection,” and the claims were preempted. Id. at 650; see also Downing, 265 F.3d at 1005 n. 4 (“In Fleet,
*1143 the plaintiffs were actors in a copyrighted film. The claims of the plaintiffs were based on
their dramatic performance in a film CBS sought to distribute. .. This is clearly distinguishable from
this case where the Appellants’ claim is based on the use of their names and
likenesses, which are not copyrightable.”).
In effect, the plaintiffs’ right of publicity claim was a question of
control over the distribution, display or performance of a movie CBS
owned. Since CBS’s use of plaintiffs’
likenesses did not extend beyond the use of the copyrighted material it held,
there was no right of publicity at issue, aside from the actors’
performances. Had the court held
otherwise, each actor could claim that any showing of the film violated his
right to control his image and persona.
Laws makes much of the fact that she
possessed a right of first refusal in all future uses of “Very Special” under
the original production agreement with Elektra. She contends that this right expressly gives her control over
the use of her name and voice in connection with any use of “Very Special.” She
also contends that “[i]f the copyright holder itself, Elektra/ Asylum, was not
ceded such rights, then as a matter of law its licensee does not possess those
rights.” In effect, Laws contends that her contractual reservation gives her an
interest in the copyright and, concomitantly, renders Elektra’s copyright
partially subject to her control.
We express no view as to the effect of
Laws’s reservation in the production agreement and no view as to any remedies
that Laws may have against Elektra.
Whether or not the two parties contracted around the actual use of a
copyright does not affect our preemption analysis. To the extent that Laws has enforceable, contractual rights
regarding the use of Elektra’s copyright, her remedy may lie in a breach of
contract claim against Elektra for licensing “ Very Special” without her
authorization. See Grosso v. Miramax
Film Corp., 383 F.3d 965, 968 (9th Cir.2004).^FN5
FN5. Counsel represented to this Court during oral argument that
it had in fact filed a breach of contract claim in state court.
In sum, we hold that Laws’s cause of
action is within the subject matter of copyright.
B. Equivalent Rights
[7] We must next determine whether the
rights she asserts under California law are equivalent to the rights protected
under the Copyright Act. We conclude that they are. In Del Madera Props. v. Rhodes & Gardner, 820 F.2d 973 (9th
Cir.1987), overruled on other grounds, Fogerty v. Fantasy, Inc., 510 U.S. 517,
114 S.Ct. 1023, 127 L.Ed.2d 455 (1994), we outlined the test for determining
whether state rights were “equivalent” to those under the Copyright Act: To
satisfy the “equivalent rights” part of the preemption test ... the ... alleged misappropriation ... must be
equivalent to rights within the general scope of copyright as specified by
section 106 of the Copyright Act.
Section 106 provides a copyright owner with the exclusive rights of
reproduction, preparation of derivative works, distribution, and display. To survive preemption, the state cause of
action must protect rights which are qualitatively different from the copyright
rights. The state claim must have an
extra element which changes the nature of the action.
Id. at 977 (quotations and citations
omitted). In Del Madera Properties,
the plaintiff alleged that the defendants had allegedly misappropriated a
copyrighted land map to plan a new development. Plaintiff advanced an unfair competition claim and *1144 argued
that it was qualitatively different from copyright because the unfair
competition claim required the breach of a fiduciary duty, an element not
required under copyright. We squarely
rejected Del Madera’s argument: This argument ... does not add any “extra
element” which changes the nature of the action. The argument is constructed upon the premise that the documents
and information ... belonged to Del Madera and were misappropriated by the
defendants. Del Madera’s ownership of
this material, and the alleged misappropriation by the defendants, are part and
parcel of the copyright claim.
Id.; see also Harper & Row,
Publishers, Inc. v. Nation Enters., 501 F.Supp. 848, 853-54 (S.D.N.Y.1980) (“[T]he contract claim is redundant
because the additional elements ... do not afford plaintiff rights that are
‘different in kind’ from those protected by the copyright laws.”), rev’d on
other grounds, 471 U.S. 539, 105 S.Ct. 2218, 85 L.Ed.2d 588 (1985).
Laws contends that her right of
publicity claim under California Civil Code § 3344 requires proof of a use for
a “commercial purpose,” which is not an element of a copyright infringement
claim. She concedes that a right which is the “equivalent to copyright” is one
that is infringed by the mere act of reproduction; however, she argues that her
claim is not based on Sony’s mere act of reproduction, but “is for the use of
... Laws’[s] voice, the combination of her voice with another artist, and the
commercial exploitation of her voice and name in a different product without
her consent. “
Sony argues that Laws’s claims are
based exclusively on the reproduction of “ Very Special” in “All I Have.” It
asserts that the rights protected under Laws’s voice misappropriation claim are
not qualitatively different from the rights protected under copyright law
because the sole basis for her voice misappropriation claim is the unauthorized
reproduction of her copyrighted vocal performance.
[8] The essence of Laws’s claim is,
simply, that she objects to having a sample of “Very Special” used in the
Jennifer Lopez-L.L. Cool J recording.
But Laws gave up the right to reproduce her voice-at least insofar as it
is incorporated in a recording of “Very Special”-when she contracted with
Elektra in 1981 and acknowledged that Elektra held the “sole and exclusive
right to copyright such master recordings,” including the right “to lease, license,
convey or otherwise use or dispose of such master recordings.” At that point,
Laws could have either retained the copyright, or reserved contractual rights
in Elektra’s use of the recording.
Indeed, Laws claims that the latter is precisely what she did. But if Elektra licensed “Very Special” to
Sony in violation of its contract with Laws, her remedy sounds in contract
against Elektra, not in tort against Sony.
The mere presence of an additional
element (“commercial use”) in section 3344 is not enough to qualitatively
distinguish Laws’s right of publicity claim from a claim in copyright. The extra element must transform the nature
of the action. Although the elements
of Laws’s state law claims may not be identical to the elements in a copyright action,
the underlying nature of Laws’s state law claims is part and parcel of a
copyright claim. See Fleet, 58
Cal.Rptr.2d at 649. Under the Act, a
copyright owner has the exclusive right “to reproduce the copyrighted work.” 17
U.S.C. § 106(1). Laws’s claims are
based on the premise that Sony reproduced a sample of “Very Special” for
commercial purposes without her permission.
But Sony obtained a limited license from the copyright holder to use the
copyrighted *1145 work for the Lopez album.
The additional element of “commercial purpose” does not change the
underlying nature of the action. See
Motown Record Corp. v. George A. Hormel & Co., 657 F.Supp.
1236, 1239-40 (C.D.Cal.1987).
IV. CONCLUSION
Both copyright and the right of
publicity are means of protecting an individual’s investment in his or her
artistic labors. As the Court said of
copyright: The economic philosophy behind the clause empowering Congress to
grant patents and copyrights is the conviction that encouragement of individual
effort by personal gain is the best way to advance public welfare through the
talents of authors and inventors in “Science and useful Arts.” Sacrificial days
devoted to such creative activities deserve rewards commensurate with the
services rendered.
Mazer v. Stein, 347 U.S. 201, 219, 74
S.Ct. 460, 98 L.Ed. 630 (1954).
Similarly, the Supreme Court has said that theright of publicity
... rests on more than a desire to compensate
the performer for the time and effort invested in his act; the protection
provides an economic incentive for him to make the investment required to
produce a performance of interest to the public.
Zacchini v. Scripps-Howard Broad. Co.,
433 U.S. 562, 576, 97 S.Ct. 2849, 53
L.Ed.2d 965 (1977). On the one hand,
we recognize that the holder of a copyright does not have “a license to trample
on other people’s rights.” See J. Thomas McCarthy, The Rights of Publicity and
Privacy § 11:60, at 788 (2d ed.2005).
On the other hand, however, the right of publicity is not a license to
limit the copyright holder’s rights merely because one disagrees with decisions
to license the copyright. We sense that, left to creative legal arguments, the
developing right of publicity could easily supplant the copyright scheme. This, Congress has expressly precluded in §
301. Were we to conclude that Laws’s
voice misappropriation claim was not preempted by the Copyright Act, then
virtually every use of a copyrighted sound recording would infringe upon the
original performer’s right of publicity.
We foresaw this distinct possibility in Sinatra: An added clash with the
copyright laws is the potential restriction which recognition of performers’ “
secondary meanings” places upon the potential market of the copyright
proprietor. If a proposed licensee
must pay each artist who has played or sung the composition and who might
therefore claim unfair competition-performer’s protection, the licensee may
well be discouraged to the point of complete loss of interest.
Sinatra, 435 F.2d at 718. It is hard to imagine how a copyright would
remain meaningful if its licensees were potentially subject to suit from any
performer anytime the copyrighted material was used.
[9] To be clear, we recognize that not
every right of publicity claim is preempted by the Copyright Act. Our holding
does not extinguish common law or statutory rights of privacy, publicity, and
trade secrets, as well as the general law of defamation and fraud (or any other
similar causes of action), so long as those causes of action do not concern the
subject matter of copyright and contain qualitatively different elements than
those contained in a copyright infringement suit. Elektra copyrighted Laws’s performance of “ Very Special” and
licensed its use to Sony. If Laws wished to retain control of her performance,
she should (and may) have either retained the copyright or contracted with the
copyright holder, Elektra, to give her control over its licensing. In any event, her remedy, if any, lies in
an action against Elektra, not Sony.
*1146 We therefore agree with the
district court’s conclusion that Laws’s right of publicity claims are preempted
by the Copyright Act. The judgment is
AFFIRMED.