Sony/ATV Publishing LLC
on the license issue and awarded RMMI $903,349.17 in damages. Roger Miller Music, Inc. v. Sony/ATV Publishing, LLC, No. 04-1132, 2010 WL 1026980, at *3 (M.D. Tenn. Mar. 18, 2010) (RMMI III).[1] Sony timely appealed, arguing that it owned the renewal copyrights to the 1964 songs and, alternatively, that the district court's sua sponte reversal of its previous holding on the license issue was both procedurally impermissible and substantively incorrect.
II. ANALYSIS
A. Standard of Review
“‘A matter requiring statutory interpretation is a question of law,’” which we review de novo. Roberts v. Hamer, 655 F.3d 578, 582 (6th Cir. 2011) (quoting United States v. Brown, 639 F.3d 735, 737 (6th Cir. 2011)).
B. Copyright Infringement
This case presents an interstitial issue of copyright law. Miller's assignment of the renewal copyright would indisputably have been made effective if he had still been living at the commencement of the renewal term on January 1, 1993. Equally indisputable is that the assignment would have been rendered ineffective if Miller had died before 1992. This case is before us because Miller was still living at the time in 1992 that his assignee applied to register the copyright, but Miller died before the start of the renewal term. RMMI contends that Miller must have been living at the start of the renewal term to effectuate his assignment to Sony, but Sony counters that Miller needed to survive only until the time at which the application was filed. Sony is correct that the Copyright Act supports the effectiveness of assignments in such circumstances.
- ↑ The amount of infringement damages makes clear that, unlike Miller's musical persona, the owner of these copyrights would hardly be a “man of means by no means.”
