A jury trial before Charles L. Brieant, Jr., Judge, resulted in special verdicts upholding the validity of the renewal and finding that Killiam had infringed it. Killiam appeals from orders assessing damages for infringement and dismissing Killiam’s third-party complaint against Raymond Rohauer and Jay Ward Productions, Inc., charging a conspiracy to breach an alleged contractual obligation by Rohauer to refrain from claiming any copyright interest in The Birth and to assist Killiam in improving Killiam’s alleged copyright in the motion picture. We hold that since the evidence introduced at trial permitted but one reasonable conclusion, namely, that Epoch had failed to sustain its burden of establishing the validity of its renewal copyright, it was error not to have directed a verdict in favor of Killiam on Epoch’s claim. The dismissal of Killiam’s third-party complaint for failure to state a cause of action is affirmed.
The numerous issues raised by the parties on this appeal require an understanding of the circumstances surrounding the production of The Birth and negotiations with respect to copyright interests in it. Because of the passage of some 60 years since the picture was made and 32 years since the renewal copyright was issued, the parties have been relegated for the most part to reliance upon contemporaneous documentary proof. Though this evidence leaves substantial gaps, it does establish certain facts. The records of the Copyright Office, corroborated in part by live testimony and by other documentary proof, confirm that in 1914 David W. Griffith produced The Birth. The scenario, written by Griffith and Frank E. Woods, was based upon the novel “The Clansman” written by Thomas Dixon, copyrighted in 1904. Griffith was both the producer and director of the motion picture.
Griffith’s role as producer and director of The Birth is evidenced by the first copyright application concerning the film, dated February 6, 1915, which was filed on February 13, 1915, in the name of the David W. Griffith Corporation (“DWG Corp.”), a company controlled by Griffith. It applied for a copyright in The Birth as a motion-picture photoplay not reproduced for sale; in other words, as an unpublished work. A Certificate of Copyright Registration, issued to the DWG Corp. on February 13, 1915, states that the film was adapted from Thomas Dixon’s novel and produced by D. W. Griffith, with story arrangement by D. W. Griffith and Frank E. Woods. The completed film was first publicly exhibited at Clune’s Auditorium in Los Angeles on February 8, 1915, bearing copyright notice in the name of the DWG Corp.[1]
- ↑ Statutory copyright in a published work is acquired through publication of the work with the notice of copyright prescribed by Title 17 affixed thereto. 17 U.S.C. § 10. All subsequent published copies of the work must also have the copyright notice affixed thereto. Id. Registration of the copyright in a published
name: Provided, That in the case of any posthumous work or of any periodical, cyclopedic, or other composite work upon which the copyright was originally secured by the proprietor thereof, or of any work copyrighted by a corporate body (otherwise than as assignee or licensee of the individual author) or by an employer for whom such work is made for hire, the proprietor of such copyright shall be entitled to a renewal and extension of the copyright in such work for the further term of twenty-eight years when application for such renewal and extension shall have been made to the copyright office and duly registered therein within one year prior to the expiration of the original term of copyright: And provided further, That in the case of any other copyrighted work, including a contribution by an individual author to a periodical or to a cyclopedic or other composite work, the author of such work, if still living, or the widow, widower, or children of the author, if the author be not living, or if such author, widow, widower, or children be not living, then the author’s executors, or in the absence of a will, his next of kin shall be entitled to a renewal and extension of the copyright in such work for a further term of twenty-eight years when application for such renewal and extension shall have been made to the copyright office and duly registered therein within one year prior to the expiration of the original term of copyright: And provided further, That in default of the registration of such application for renewal and extension, the copyright in any work shall determine at the expiration of twenty-eight years from first publication.”
