Reed Elsevier, Inc. v. Muchnick, 559 U.S. 154 (2010), was a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States involving copyright law. The Court held that failure to register a copyright under Section 411 (a) of the United States Copyright Act does not limit a Federal Court's jurisdiction over claims of infringement regarding unregistered works.
Background and facts of the case
Copyright lawsuits for unregistered works
The case is part of a long series of controversies in US courts about the remedies available for authors who failed to register their copyrights before bringing suit. As of 2014, no case was known where an author was considered to have a legitimate excuse for not having first registered its copyright.
District Court proceedings
Reed Elsevier Inc. (et al.), the petitioners of this case, publish electronic content for other companies, such as The New York Times. The respondents, Irvin Muchnick, (et al.), are freelance writers and trade groups who represent other writers. In the 1980s, Elsevier gathered newspaper, magazine and journal articles and converted them to electronic format. It then sold access to these files without permission from the original writers. This resulted in the respondents initiating a class-action lawsuit against Elsevier for copyright infringement in the Southern District Court of New York. The Supreme Court of the United States had previously held, in New York Times Co. v. Tasini, that § 201(c) of the United States Copyright Act bars publishers from reproducing freelance works electronically without authorization specifically for the purpose. Tasini brought about the removal of "hundreds of thousands" of print media republished by those without proper permission. Eventually, the parties in Elsevier agreed to settle. Their agreement required compensation (up to $18 million) to the original publishers of the works that were reprinted without authorization. In return, the authors would release the publishers from liability regarding the unauthorized articles. As the District Court prepared for the settlement, the plaintiffs, led by Muchnick, objected to the settlement, questioning its fairness, but not the District Court's jurisdiction over the matter. The District Court overruled this objection and granted the settlement in September 2005. The objectors appealed this decision to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.
Appellate Court proceedings
The Second Circuit held, sua sponte, that the District Court did not have jurisdiction over the previous claims, nor authority for settlement approval with respect to those claims. The Second Circuit cited § 411 (a) of the United States Copyright Act as support, as the act states: "no action for infringement of the copyright in any United States work shall be instituted until preregistration or registration of the copyright claim has been made in accordance with this title.” The Second Circuit both vacated and remanded the prior court's judgement. The Supreme Court granted certiorari on March 2, 2009.
Supreme Court proceedings
The United States Supreme Court granted certiorari to review Elsevier on March 2, 2009. The court addressed the question, "Does 17 U.S.C. §411(a) restrict the subject matter jurisdiction of the federal courts over copyright infringement actions?" This rule states: