Cite as 61 Fed.Appx. 538 (10th Cir. 2003)
matter objected to and the grounds of the objection.”
Id. at 915 (citations omitted).
Given its failure to raise the argument at trial, Urantia Foundation’s lengthy briefing of the issue on appeal is unavailing. Urantia Foundation participated below in all phases of a jury trial and never objected to the submission of the classification question to the jury. It may not at this late date attempt to avoid the deferential standard appropriate to our review of a district court’s denial of a jnov motion.
The standard of review for denial of a renewed motion for judgment as a matter of law in a jury trial contesting the validity of a copyright is clear:
We review the district court’s denial of a renewal motion for judgment as a matter of law de novo, applying the same standards as the district court. We must affirm if, viewing the record in the light most favorable to [the nonmoving party], there is evidence upon which the jury could properly return a verdict for [the nonmoving party]. We do not weigh the evidence, pass on the credibility of the witnesses, or substitute our conclusions for that [sic] of the jury. However, we must enter judgment as a matter of law in favor of the moving party if “there is no legally sufficient evidentiary basis … with respect to a claim or defense … under the controlling law.”
Harolds Stores, Inc. v. Dillard Department Stores, Inc., 82 F.3d 1533, 1546–47 (10th Cir.1996) (citations omitted).
- 3. Composite Work
We proceed, under the standard articulated supra, to consider whether the record contains evidence upon which a reasonable jury could have concluded that The Urantia Book is not a composite work. Any such evidence terminates our inquiry in favor of Michael Foundation, the nonmoving party.
The term “composite work” appears in, but is not defined by, the 1909 Act. Composites are related, however, to “compilations,” which the Act does define. Compilations are works “formed by the collection and assembling of pre-existing materials or of data that are selected, coordinated, or arranged in such a way that the resulting work as a whole constitutes an original work of authorship.” 17 U.S.C. § 101. The leading treatise on copyright law defines the composite category as a subcategory of compilations, but distinct from compilations in that each individual work within a composite must be independently copyrightable, whereas there is no such requirement for a compilation. Nimmer on Copyright, § 3.02. Individual works in a compilation need not come from the same author, as long as they are discrete, independent works. Examples of compilations include periodicals, catalogs, and encyclopedias. Under both the 1909 Act and the 1976 Act, the proprietor of a “periodical, cyclopedic, or other composite work” is entitled to renew the copyright it originally obtained in the work. 17 U.S.C. § 24 (repealed); 17 U.S.C. § 304(a)(1)(B)(i).
Urantia Foundation advances four arguments in support of its contention that The Urantia Book is a composite work as a matter of law: (1) The Urantia Book is a composite work per se because it is a collection of 196 separate, individually titled papers on a wide variety of topics, most of which the Conduit wrote and delivered separately to the Contact Commission;[1] (2) because the question of whether
- ↑ In support of this argument, Urantia Foundation cites Urantia Foundation v. Maaherra, 114 F.3d 955 (9th Cir.1997), and argues that this court should, in the interests of “princi-
