WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday dealt a setback to the writers and producers of older works, ruling that the original creators of films, books and songs whose copyrights have expired do not have a right to be credited on new works that rely on the original.
In an 8-0 decision, the justices reversed the rule that prevails at federal courts in California and said that works in the public domain can be freely copied and revised for sale to the public -- and without crediting the original creator.
Legal experts praised the ruling for clarifying the difference between copyrights and trademarks. Copyrights and patents protect creators -- authors and inventors -- while trademarks are intended to protect consumers from being fooled by counterfeit products.
The Trademark Act does not protect producers when competitors sell cheap knockoffs of their brand-name items, the high court said.
Monday's decision overturned a $1.5-million verdict won by the Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp., which owned the rights to a 1949 documentary on World War II called "Crusade in Europe." In 1977, the copyright to this film expired.
In the 1990s, an Oregon firm known as Dastar, anticipating a resurgence of public interest in World War II, edited the original, added other war footage and marketed the videotape set for $25 as "Campaigns in Europe." Dastar sells its tapes at Wal-Mart and Costco stores.
Lawyers for Fox sued Dastar in federal court in Los Angeles, contending that sale of this repackaged film series "without proper credit" violated the Trademark Act.
The Trademark Act protects brand-name goods as well as the consumers that buy them. Federal judges in California and New York have been especially protective of authors, composers and producers. In recent years, they have extended the act to protect original creators on the grounds that consumers deserve to know the "origin of goods."
Based on this theory, U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper in Los Angeles ruled for Fox and said Dastar violated the act by marketing its tapes "without proper attribution." She awarded Fox all of Dastar's profits on its tape series.
In a brief opinion, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the $1.5-million verdict, commenting that Dastar was guilty of "palming off" Fox's film as its own. But the U.S. Supreme Court took up the case of Dastar vs. Twentieth Century Fox and ruled Monday that there is no such right to "proper credit" under the Trademark Act. Justice Stephen G. Breyer did not take part in the case. His brother, a judge in California, was involved in the case in lower courts.
