
United States Court of Appeals,
Eleventh Circuit.
Jerry GREENBERG, Idaz Greenberg, Plaintiffs-Appellants,
v.
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY, a District of Columbia Corporation, National
Geographic Enterprises, Inc., a corporation, Mindscape, Inc., a California
corporation, Defendants-Appellees.
No. 00-10510.
March 22, 2001.
Freelance photographer brought infringement suit against magazine which published
searchable electronic collection of its prior issues, including those in which
photographer's copyrighted pictures had appeared. The United States District
Court for the Southern District of Florida, No. 97-03924-CV-JAL, Joan A. Lenard,
J., granted summary judgment for publisher, and photographer appealed. The Court
of Appeals, Birch, Circuit Judge, held that: (1) searchable electronic collection
of magazine's past issues was not "revision," within meaning of exception
allowing publisher to reuse copyrighted photographs, and (2) use of copyrighted
cover photograph to create morphing video montage infringed photographer's exclusive
right to prepare derivative works.
Reversed and remanded.
*1268 Norman Davis, Steel, Hector & Davis, Miami, FL, for Plaintiffs- Appellants.
Naomi Jane Gray, Robert G. Sugarman, Weil, Gotshal & Manges, LLP, New York
City, Terrence B. Adamson, Sr. Vice President-Nat. Geographic Soc., Washington,
DC, for Defendants-Appellees.
Patricia A. Felch, Chicago, IL, for American Soc. of Media Photographers, Inc.,
Amicus Curiae.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
Before ANDERSON, Chief Judge, and TJOFLAT and BIRCH, Circuit Judges.
BIRCH, Circuit Judge:
This appeal requires us, as a matter of first impression in this circuit, to
construe the extent of the privilege afforded to the owner of a copyright in
a collective work to reproduce and distribute the individual contributions to
the collective work "as part of that particular collective work, any revision
of that collective work, and any later collective work in the same series"
under 17 U.S.C. § 201(c). [FN1] In this copyright infringement case, the
district court granted the defendants' motion for summary judgment, holding
that the allegedly infringing work was a revision of a prior collective work
that fell within the defendants' privilege under § 201(c). Because we find
that the defendants' product is not merely a revision of the prior collective
work but instead constitutes a new collective work that lies beyond the scope
of § 201(c), we REVERSE.
FN1. Hereafter, all references to statutory sections (" § ")
will be to Title 17 of the United States Code, unless indicated otherwise.
I. BACKGROUND
The National Geographic Society ("Society") purports to be the world's
largest nonprofit scientific and educational organization at approximately 9.5
million members, and is responsible for the publication of National Geographic
Magazine ("Magazine"). Through National Geographic *1269 Enterprises,
a wholly owned, for-profit subsidiary, the Society also produces television
programs and computer software, along with other educational products. In order
to acquire photographs for the Magazine and its other publications, the Society
hires freelance photographers on an independent-contractor basis to complete
specific assignments.
Jerry Greenberg is a photographer who completed four photographic assignments
for the Society over the course of 30 years. Photographs from the first three
assignments were published in the January 1962, February 1968, and May 1971
issues of the Magazine, respectively. The terms of Greenberg's employment for
these assignments were set out in a series of relatively informal letters. Greenberg
received compensation consisting of a daily fee, a fee based on the number of
photographs published, and payment of expenses, and in return the Society acquired
all rights in any photograph taken on the jobs that was ultimately selected
for publication in the Magazine. In 1985, at Greenberg's request, the Society
reassigned its copyrights in the pictures from these three jobs back to Greenberg.
Greenberg's fourth hire for the Society appeared in the July 1990 issue of the
Magazine, but the agreement for this job was more detailed than its predecessors.
The principle terms of the fourth agreement were similar to those of the first
three; however, in this agreement it was explicitly provided that all rights
that the Society acquired in the photographs from the job would be returned
to Greenberg 60 days after the pictures were published in the Magazine.
In 1996, the Society, in collaboration with Mindscape, Inc., began the development
of a product called "The Complete National Geographic" ("CNG"),
which is a 30 CD-ROM library that collects every [FN2] issue of the Magazine
from 1888 to 1996 in digital format. There are three components of the CNG that
are relevant to this appeal: (1) the moving covers sequence ("Sequence");
(2) the digitally reproduced issues of the Magazine themselves ("Replica");
and (3) the computer program that serves as the storage repository and retrieval
system for the images ("Program").
FN2. The Society publishes multiple regional and international editions of each
issue of the Magazine. These various editions differ from one another in the
language in which they are written and the advertisements that are printed.
The CNG includes only one representative edition of each issue.
The Sequence is an animated clip that plays automatically when any disc from
the CNG library is activated. The clip begins with the image of an actual cover
of a past issue of the Magazine. This image, through the use of computer animation,
overlappingly fades ("morphs") into the image of another cover, pauses
on that cover for approximately one second, and then morphs into another cover
image, and so on, until 10 different covers have been displayed. One of the
cover images used in the moving covers sequence is a picture of a diver that
was taken by Greenberg in 1961. The entire sequence lasts for 25 seconds, and
is accompanied by music and sound effects.
The collected issues of the Magazine, which are, of course, the CNG's raison
d'être, were converted to digital format through a process of scanning
each cover and page of each issue into a computer. What the user of the CNG
sees on his computer screen, therefore, is a reproduction of each page of the
Magazine that differs from the original only in the size and resolution of the
photographs and text. Every cover, article, advertisement, and photograph appears
as it did in the original paper copy of the Magazine. The user can print out
the image of any page of the Magazine, but the CNG does not provide a means
for the user to separate the photographs from the text or otherwise to edit
the pages in any way.
The Program, which was created by Mindscape, is the element of the software
that enables the user to select, view, and navigate through the digital "pages"
of the Magazine Replica on the CD-ROM. In creating the Program for the CNG,
Mindscape *1270 incorporated two separate programs: the CD Author Development
System ("CDA"), which is a search engine created by Dataware Technologies,
Inc.; and the PicTools Development Kit ("PicTools"), which is a program
for compressing and decompressing images that was created by Pegasus Imaging
Corp. [FN3] The CNG package contains a "shrink-wrap" license agreement
in which "all rights [in the Program] not expressly granted are reserved
by Mindscape or its suppliers." Without the Program, the Replica could
still be stored on a CD-ROM, but the individual "pages" of the Magazine
would not be efficiently accessible to the user of the CNG.
FN3. Mindscape indicates that it has not registered a claim of
copyright in the Program, which is manifestly copyrightable. See §§
101 (defining "computer program"), 102; Montgomery v. Noga, 168 F.3d
1282, 1288 (11th Cir.1999). However, copyright arises by operation of law upon
fixation of an original work of authorship in a tangible medium of expression,
which has clearly occurred in the case of the Program. See § 102; Montgomery,
168 F.3d at 1288. Moreover, Mindscape has represented to this court that two
component elements of the Program, the CDA and PicTools, each of which are separately
copyrightable computer programs, have been registered with the Copyright Office
by Dataware Technologies, Inc., and Pegasus Imaging Corp., respectively. Because
it consists of at least two other individually copyrighted works, the Program
meets the definition of both a "compilation" and a "collective
work" under § 101 of the Act.
Prior to placing the CNG on the market, the Society dispatched a letter to each
person who had contributed to the Magazine. This letter informed the contributors
about the CNG product and stated the Society's position that it would not provide
the contributors with any additional compensation for the digital republication
and use of their works. Greenberg contends that he responded to this notice
through counsel and objected to the Society's use of his photographs in the
CNG, but he received no response from the Society.
The Society sought registration for its claim of copyright for the CNG in 1998,
but noted 1997 as the year of its completion. On the registration form, [FN4]
the Society indicated that the "nature of authorship" included photographs,
text, and an "introductory audiovisual montage." The Society claimed
that the work had not been registered before, but indicated that it was a derivative
work, namely a "compilation of pre-existing material primarily pictorial,"
to which a "brief introductory audiovisual montage" had been added.
No reference was made to, nor was there any disclosure of, the copyrightable
Mindscape Program or the two pre-existing, copyrightable sub- programs that
it incorporates, all of which are also components of the CNG. The box in which
the CNG is packaged and each individual CD-ROM bear the mark "© 1997
National Geographic Society"--indicating the creation of a new work of
authorship in 1997.
FN4. A copy of the registration form (application), which when approved by the
Copyright Office became the registration certificate, is attached hereto as
Appendix A.
Greenberg initiated an infringement action against the Society, National Geographic
Enterprises, and Mindscape, alleging five counts of copyright infringement,
two of which are relevant here: count "III" addressed the Society's
reuse of Greenberg's photographs in the CNG, generally, and count "V"
specifically addressed the use of his diver photograph in the Sequence. The
Society, together with the two other defendants, moved for summary judgment
on counts III-V, arguing that it had a privilege under § 201(c) to reproduce
and distribute Greenberg's photographs in the CNG because it owned the copyright
in the original issues of the Magazine in which the photographs appeared. [FN5]
Greenberg filed a cross-motion for summary judgment on count III. The district
*1271 court, relying on the district court opinion in Tasini v. New York Times
Co., 972 F.Supp. 804 (S.D.N.Y.1997), rev'd 206 F.3d 161 (2d Cir.2000), cert.
granted, 531 U.S. 978, 121 S.Ct. 425, 148 L.Ed.2d 434 (2000) (No. 00-201), held
that the CNG constituted a "revision" of the paper copies of the Magazine
that was within the Society's privilege under § 201(c), and accordingly
granted summary judgment for all of the defendants on counts III-V. The district
court later dismissed counts I and II, which did not relate to the CNG, at the
parties' joint request. The Greenbergs appeal the district court's judgment
only as to counts III and V.
FN5. There is no evidence in the record that would support the theory that National
Geographic Enterprises or Mindscape, neither of which has a copyright interest
in the original issues of the Magazine, somehow are privy to the privilege in
§ 201(c) enjoyed by the Society.
II. DISCUSSION
[1] [2] To evaluate the claims of infringement leveled by Greenberg against
the defendants, [FN6] we must interpret and apply § 201(c) of the Act.
That section constitutes the sole basis and defense of the Society's use of
Greenberg's copyrighted photographs. In all cases involving copyright law, we
understand that any interpretation and application of the statutory law must
be consistent with the copyright clause of the United States Constitution; specifically,
the eighth clause of the eighth section of Article I. That clause is a limitation,
as well as a grant, of the copyright power. [FN7] The copyright clause, consisting
of twenty-four words crafted by our founding fathers, is the Rosetta Stone for
all statutory interpretation and analysis. Accordingly, it is upon that predicate
that we examine § 201(c) in the context of this case. [FN8]
FN6. In the Amended Complaint, Greenberg refers to Mindscape's and National
Geographic Enterprises's liability as "at least vicarious." We construe
this as an allegation of contributory copyright infringement. A contributory
copyright infringer is "one who, with knowledge of the infringing activity,
induces, causes or materially contributes to the infringing conduct of another."
Cable/Home Communication Corp. v.
Network Prods., Inc., 902 F.2d 829, 845 (11th Cir.1990) (citations omitted).
Accordingly, there can be no contributory infringement without a finding that
there was direct copyright infringement by another party. Id.
Further, the CNG appears to be a "joint work," which is defined under
§ 101 as "a work prepared by two or more authors with the intention
that their contributions be merged into inseparable or interdependent parts
of a unitary whole." Here the two "authors," the Society and
Mindscape ("authors" under the legal fiction created in § 201(b)),
clearly intended their contributions of the Sequence, Replica, and Program to
function and be presented as a unitary whole. The CNG also fits the definition
of a "collective work" under § 101; that is, "a work ...
in which a number of contributions, constituting separate and independent works
in themselves, are assembled into a collective whole." The concept of the
"collective work" is included within the term "compilation,"
which is defined in § 101 as "a work formed by the collection and
assembling of preexisting materials ... that are selected, coordinated, or arranged
in such a way that the resulting work as a whole constitutes an original work
of authorship." Whether the CNG is considered a "joint work"
or a "collective work" makes no difference in our analysis because
under each definition, a work results that is copyrightable as an entity separate
and
distinct from its constituent, pre-existing, separately copyrightable contributions.
FN7. See Paul J. Heald and Suzanna Sherry, "Implied Limits on the Legislative Power: the Intellectual Property Clause as an Absolute Constraint on Congress," 2000 U. Ill. L.Rev. 1119 (2000).
FN8. Appreciation of fundamental principles is required in all areas of the law, but is particularly important in the copyright arena. As observed by Professor L. Ray Patterson's opening remarks in his insightful article entitled "Understanding the Copyright Clause," 47 J. COPYRIGHT SOC'Y 365 (2000):
Probably few industries as large as the copyright industry have rested on a
legal foundation as slim as the twenty-four words of the copyright clause. And
probably no foundation of comparable importance has been so little understood
and so often ignored. This is all the more surprising because the components
of the copyright industry-- information/learning/entertainment--are so important
to a free society, and because the history of the copyright clause is so well
documented.
Id. at 365. The copyright clause provides: "The Congress shall have Power
... To promote the Progress of Science ... by securing for limited
Times to Authors ... the exclusive Right to their ... Writings." U.S. CONST.
art. I, § 8, cl. 8.
*1272 The Society conceded that it has used Greenberg's photographs in a way
that is inconsistent with his exclusive rights as an author under § 106.
[FN9] However, the Society contends that it is privileged to make such use of
the photographs under § 201(c), and therefore does not violate such exclusive
rights and thus is not an infringer under § 501(a). Subpart "c"
of § 201, entitled "Ownership of Copyright," provides:
FN9. Section 106 reserves to the owner of a copyright the rights:
(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.
(c) Contributions to Collective Works.--Copyright in each separate contribution
to a collective work is distinct from copyright in the collective work as a
whole, and vests initially in the author of the contribution. In the absence
of an express transfer of the copyright or of any rights under it, the owner
of copyright in the collective work is presumed to have acquired only the privilege
of reproducing and distributing the contribution as part of that particular
collective work, any revision of that collective work, and any later collective
work in the same series.
[3] In the context of this case, Greenberg is "the author of the contribution"
(here each photograph is a contribution) and the Society is "the owner
of copyright in the collective work" (here the Magazine). Note that the
statute grants to the Society "only [a] privilege," not a right. Thus
the statute's language contrasts the contributor's "copyright" and
"any rights under it" with the publisher's "privilege."
This is an important distinction that militates in favor of narrowly construing
the publisher's privilege when balancing it against the constitutionally-secured
rights of the author/contributor.
The Society argues that its use of Greenberg's photographs constitutes a "revision"
of the Magazine ["that collective work"], referring to the CNG as
the compendium of over 1,200 independent back issues; in copyright terms, a
collective work of separate and distinct collective works, arranged in chronological
order. [FN10] Assuming arguendo, but expressly not deciding, that 201(c)'s revision
privilege embraces the entirety of the Replica portion of the CNG (the 1,200
issues, as opposed to each separate issue of the Magazine), we are unable to
stretch the phrase "that particular collective work" to encompass
the Sequence and Program elements as well. In layman's terms, the instant product
is in no sense a "revision." In this case we do not need to consult
dictionaries or colloquial meanings to understand what is permitted under §
201(c). Congress in its legislative commentary spelled it out in the concluding
paragraph of its discussion of § 201(c) (which is identical in both the
Senate and House versions): [FN11]
FN10. It does not satisfy the definition of "compilation" since inclusion
of all issues of a publication in chronological order does not satisfy the minimum
creativity necessary for the selection, coordination, or arrangement that would
result in an original work of authorship. See Warren Publ'g, Inc. v. Microdos
Data Corp., 115 F.3d 1509, 1518-19 (11th Cir.1997) (en banc) (holding that work
incorporating "entire relevant universe" did not exhibit sufficient
creativity in selection to merit
copyright protection as a compilation).
FN11. A reproduction of the entire discussion in the House and Senate Reports is set out in Appendix B.
The basic presumption of section 201(c) is fully consistent with present law
and practice, and represents a fair balancing *1273 of equities. At the same
time, the last clause of the subsection, under which the privilege of republishing
the contribution under certain limited circumstances would be presumed, is an
essential counterpart of the basic presumption. Under the language of this clause
a publishing company could reprint a contribution from one issue in a later
issue of its magazine, and could reprint an article from a 1980 edition of an
encyclopedia in a 1990 revision of it; the publisher could not revise the contribution
itself or include it in a new anthology or an entirely different magazine or
other collective work.
H.R.Rep. No. 94-1476, at 122-23 (1976), reprinted in 1976 U.S.C.C.A.N. 5659,
5738 (emphasis added).
As discussed above, the CNG is an "other collective work" composed
of the Sequence, the Replica, and the Program. However, common-sense copyright
analysis compels the conclusion that the Society, in collaboration with Mindscape,
has created a new product ("an original work of authorship"), in a
new medium, for a new market that far transcends any privilege of revision or
other mere reproduction envisioned in § 201(c). [FN12]
FN12. The Society characterizes this case as one in which there has merely been
a republication of a preexisting work, without substantive change, in a new
medium; specifically, digital format. As discussed in the text, however, this
case is both factually and legally different than a media transformation. The
Society analogizes the digitalization of the Magazine to the reproduction of
the Magazine on microfilm and microfiche. While it is true that both the digital
reproductions and the microfilm/microfiche reproductions require a mechanical
device for viewing them, the critical difference, from a copyright perspective,
is that the computer, as opposed to the machines used for viewing microfilm
and microfiche, requires the interaction of a computer program in order to accomplish
the useful reproduction involved with the new medium. These computer programs
are themselves the subject matter of copyright, and may constitute original
works of authorship, and thus present an additional dimension in the copyright
analysis. Because this case involves not only the incorporation of a new computer
program, but also the combination of the Sequence and the Replica, we need not
decide in this case whether the addition of only the Program would result in
the creation of a new
collective work.
This analysis is totally consistent with the conduct of the Society when it
registered its claim of copyright in the CNG (under the title "108 Years
of National Geographic on CD-ROM"). Under section "5" of the
copyright registration form, in response to the question: "Has registration
for this work, or for an earlier version of this work, already been made in
the Copyright Office?"; the Society replied, "No." Accordingly,
this was a new work. Registrations had already been made relative to individual
issues of the Magazine. Under section "6", subpart "a",
the Society described the work (the CNG) as a "Compilation of pre-existing
material primarily pictorial." Under section "6", subpart "b",
which requested, "Material added to this work. Give a brief, general statement
of the material that has been added to this work and in which copyright is claimed,"
the Society wrote "Brief introductory audiovisual montage." See Appendix
A. [FN13] Thus, even the Society admitted that the registered work, the CNG,
was a compilation. Recall that a collective work is included in the definition
of compilation and embraces those works wherein its separate components are
each themselves copyrightable--as are the Sequence, Replica, and Program (the
"pre-existing materials" referred to in part [only the Replica was
disclosed] by the Society in section "6".). Accordingly, in the words
of the legislative report, "the publisher [the Society] could not ... include
[the contribution (the photographs) ] in a new anthology ... or other *1274
collective work [the CNG]." Thus in creating a new work the Society forfeited
any privilege that it might [FN14] have enjoyed with respect to only one component
thereof, the Replica.
FN13. As noted earlier, the Society failed to indicate the third, and critical,
element of the new work, the Program. While the storage and retrieval system
may be "transparent" to the unsophisticated computer user, it nevertheless
is present and integral to the operation and presentation of the data and images
viewed and accessed by the user. Giving the Society the benefit of the doubt,
it may not have intentionally perpetrated a fraud on the Copyright Office.
FN14. We indicate "might " because a persuasive argument can be made that when the Replica portion of the CNG was converted from text and picture images on a page to electronic, digital format, the statutory definition of a "derivative work" was not satisfied. A "derivative work" is defined under § 101 as:
a work based upon one or more preexisting works, such as a translation, musical
arrangement, dramatization, fictionalization, motion picture
version, sound recording, art reproduction, abridgment, condensation, or any
other form in which a work may be recast, transformed, or adapted. A work consisting
of editorial revisions, annotations, elaborations, or other modifications which,
as a whole, represent an original work of authorship, is a "derivative
work".
(Emphasis added). Note that in order to qualify as a derivative work, the resulting
work (including "revisions") after transformation must qualify as
an "original work of authorship." Thus, the mere electronic digital
reproduction that represents the Replica may not qualify as a derivative work,
and thus not violate Greenberg's exclusive right to prepare derivative works
under § 106. See supra note 10. This derivative- works issue may be addressed
by the Supreme Court in Tasini v. New York Times Co., 972 F.Supp. 804 (S.D.N.Y.1997),
rev'd 206 F.3d 161 (2d Cir.2000), cert. granted, 531 U.S. 978, 121 S.Ct. 425,
148 L.Ed.2d 434 (2000) (No. 00-201). But here, as explained above, we have far
more than a mere reproduction in another medium.
[4] With respect to the Sequence and its unauthorized use of Greenberg's diver
photograph, we find that the Society has infringed upon the photographer's exclusive
right under § 106(2) to prepare derivative works based upon his copyrighted
photograph. The Society has selected ten preexisting works, photographs included
in covers of ten issues of the Magazine, including Greenberg's, and transformed
them into a moving visual sequence that morphs one into the other over a span
of approximately 25 seconds. Moreover, the Society repositioned Greenberg's
photograph from a horizontal presentation of the diver into a vertical presentation
of that diver. Manifestly, this Sequence, an animated, transforming selection
and arrangement of preexisting copyrighted photographs constitutes at once a
compilation, collective work, and, with reference to the Greenberg photograph,
a derivative work. See Warren Publ'g, 115 F.3d at 1515 n. 16.
[5] The Society argues that its use of Greenberg's diver photograph was a fair
use under § 107. [FN15] Guided by the principles explained in Campbell
v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc., 510 U.S. 569, 114 S.Ct. 1164, 127 L.Ed.2d 500 (1994),
[FN16] we find that the Society has neither a fair use defense or right. See
Bateman v. Mnemonics, Inc., 79 F.3d 1532, 1542 n. 22 (11th Cir.1996); David
Nimmer, "An Odyssey through Copyright's Vicarious Defenses," 73 N.Y.U.
L. REV. 162, 191 (1998). The use of the diver photograph far transcended a mere
reprinting or borrowing of the work. As explained above, it became an integral
part of a larger, new collective work. The use to which the diver photograph
was put was clearly a transformative use. The Sequence reflects the transformation
of the photograph as it is faded into and out of the preceding and following
photographs (after having turned the horizontal diver onto a vertical axis).
The Sequence also integrates the visual presentation with an *1275 audio presentation
consisting of copyrightable music. The resultant moving and morphing visual
creation transcends a use that is fair within the context of § 107. Moreover,
while the CNG is a product that may serve educational purposes, it is marketed
to the public at book stores, specialty stores, and over the Internet. The Society
is a non-profit organization, but its subsidiary National Geographic Enterprises,
which markets and distributes the CNG, is not; the sale of the CNG is clearly
for profit. Finally, the inclusion of Greenberg's diver photograph in the Sequence
has effectively diminished, if not extinguished, any opportunity Greenberg might
have had to license the photograph to other potential users. [FN17]
FN15. Among the factors to be considered in determining whether a use of a copyrighted
work is a "fair use" are:
(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a
commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
(2) the nature of the copyrighted work;
(3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted
work as a whole; and
(4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the
copyrighted work.
17 U.S.C. § 107.
FN16. In Campbell, the Supreme Court indicated that the statutory factors in § 107 should not "be treated in isolation, one from another. All are to be explored, and the results weighed together, in light of the purposes of copyright." 510 U.S. at 578, 114 S.Ct. at 1170-71.
FN17. The inclusion by the Society of Greenberg's photograph in a newly copyrighted work, the Sequence, clearly indicates that the Society claims certain copyright rights in the photograph, with which potential licensees or assignees of the photograph would have to be concerned.
[6] Alternatively, the Society contends that its use of Greenberg's diver photograph,
which appeared on the cover of the January 1962 issue of the Magazine, constitutes
a de minimis use and thus is not actionable. We find no merit in that argument
in the context of this derivative and collective work, the Sequence.
In assessing a de minimis defense, we must examine both the quality and quantity
of the use. [FN18] Greenberg's photograph is one of ten selected and arranged
by the Society and constitutes one-tenth of the entire Sequence; a pro-rata
share. Thus, when comparing the entire work with the contribution at issue,
it clearly represents a significant portion of the new work. This is particularly
accentuated in a qualitative way when we consider that only ten covers from
a universe of some 1200 covers of the Magazine, embracing 108 years of publication,
were selected for this composition. Moreover, the instruction materials that
accompany the CD-ROM discs inside the CNG product box refer to the Sequence
as "The Complete National Geographic icon" (emphasis added).
FN18. See Horgan v. Macmillan, Inc., 789 F.2d 157, 162 (2d Cir.1986) ("Even
a small amount of the original, if it is qualitatively significant, may be sufficient
to be an infringement."); Metro-Goldwyn- Mayer, Inc. v. American Honda
Motor Co., 900 F.Supp. 1287, 1300 (C.D.Cal.1995) ("[T]he court must look
to the quantitative and qualitative extent of the copying involved.").
Each and every time a user of the CNG views any of the 30 discs, the user views
the Sequence--the projection of the Sequence is automatic without any prompting
from the user. Thus, the use of the Sequence in the context of the entire CNG
is not a de minimis use that fails to reach the threshold of actionable copyright
infringement. The two cases principally relied upon by the Society, Ringgold
v. Black Entm't Television, Inc., 126 F.3d 70 (2d Cir.1997), and Amsinck v.
Columbia Pictures Indus., Inc., 862 F.Supp. 1044 (S.D.N.Y.1994), are not to
the contrary. The "iconic" display at the beginning of each disc in
the CNG product argues against the suggestion that the use of the Sequence in
the CNG or the use of the Greenberg diver photograph in the Sequence is inconsequential.
Accordingly, because we find the unauthorized use of the subject photograph
to be both qualitatively and quantitatively significant, we reject the de minimis
defense advanced by the Society and its putative co-infringers.
III. CONCLUSION
We conclude that the unauthorized use of the Greenberg photographs in the CNG
compiled and authored by the Society constitutes copyright infringement that
is not excused by the privilege afforded the Society under § 201(c). We
also find that the unauthorized use of Greenberg's diver photograph in the derivative
and collective work, the Sequence, compiled by the Society, constitutes copyright
infringement, and that the proffered de minimis use defense is without merit.
Upon remand, *1276 the district court should ascertain the amount of damages
and attorneys fees that are, if any, due as well as any injunctive relief that
may be appropriate. In assessing the appropriateness of any injunctive relief,
we urge the court to consider alternatives, such as mandatory license fees,
in lieu of foreclosing the public's computer-aided access to this educational
and entertaining work.
REVERSED and REMANDED.