On 8/30/99, Mark Lemley <mlemley[_at_]mail.law.utexas.edu> wrote:
>
> On 08/27/1999, John Noble <jnoble[_at_]dgsys.com> wrote:
> >
> > Radio Television Espanola S.A. v. New World Entertainment, Ltd.,
> > No. 97-56418 (9th Cir., July 16, 1999) upholds a district court
> > grant of summary judgment in a case claiming breach of an alleged
> > exclusive license to broadcast certain programs. The Ninth Circuit
> > agrees that fax documents and internal memoranda do not satisfy
> > the writing requirement of sec. 204(a).
> >
> > I had thought it was clear that 204(a) applied to copyright transfers
> > and assignments but not to license agreements. Am I wrong, or is the
> > Ninth Circuit a bottle short of a six-pack.
> >
> ***********
>
> My understanding is that 204(a) has been applied to exclusive
> licenses, but not to nonexclusive licenses.
Correct. The application to exclusive licenses should not be a matter of judicial application. The statute says so:
"A 'transfer of copyright ownership' is an assignment, mortgage, exclusive license, or any other conveyance, alienation, or hypothecation of a copyright or of any of the exclusive rights comprised in a copyright, whether or not it is limited in time or place of effect, but not including a nonexclusive license."
17 U.S.C. sec. 101.
And sec. 204(a) specifically uses the phrase "transfer of copyright ownership."
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