Cite as 118 F.3d 205 (4th Cir. 1997)
the suit based on the statute of limitations was inappropriate. Accordingly, we reverse and remand to the district court for adjudication of the Hotalings’ surviving claim. If the district court finds that the Church complied with § 108, it should dismiss this action. If the court finds that the Church did not comply with § 108, it should conduct further proceedings on outstanding claims, including the validity of the copyright.
REVERSED AND REMANDED
K.K. HALL, Circuit Judge, dissenting:
I respectfully dissent. The statute specifically identifies the sorts of “distribution” that violate a copyright, and none of them fit this situation.
The owner of a copyright does not possess an exclusive right to “distribute” the work in any conceivable manner; instead, it has the exclusive right “to distribute copies … of the copyrighted work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending[.]” 17 U.S.C. § 106(3). The Church did not sell or give an infringing copy to anyone. The Church did not “rent” or “lease” a copy; indeed, the public may use the Church’s libraries and all of their contents for free.
“Lending” is the only remaining candidate. Because they are for research, the libraries do not permit materials to be checked out and used by a member of the public off-premises. Do the libraries nonetheless “lend” a work each time a patron consults it? I think not. The patron might report that he “used” or “looked at” the work, but he would not likely say that it had been “lent” to him.
Moreover, in this case, the plaintiffs do not even have any evidence that anyone used or looked at an infringing copy during the limitations period. The majority suggests that such evidence might have existed had the libraries—unlike all or nearly all others—recorded each and every use of its millions of volumes. It might have, but it does not.
In closing, I should say that I have some sympathy for the result reached by the majority. A library's allowing on-premises public use of an unauthorized copy should probably infringe a copyright. Nonetheless, I believe that current law does not deem this sort of use an infringing “distribution,” and that, in any event, there is no evidence of such use in this case.
I would affirm the judgment of the district court.
