[Dixielandjazz] The reissue of old recordings - US Court case

[John Ding]

Naxos Wins Landmark Case Against Capitol/EMI
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Hi All,
Received this article via another list and passing it on for thems who be
interested. Apologies for the 'iffy' formatting.
-=-
 John,
        Suffolk, England.
                    ?
___o00o__(°¿°)__o00o___
  You Play It - I'll Mix It
   =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=



: ------- Forwarded message follows -------
:
: June 2, 2003 (naxos.com)
:
: New York, USA - On November 22, 2002 Capitol Records, Inc.
: brought an
: action against Naxos of America in the United States District Court,
: Southern District of New York.  Capitol brought the action for unfair
: competition, misappropriation of property, unjust enrichment and
: common law copyright infringement.  Capitol challenged Naxos'
: distribution of historic recordings dating from the 1930's featuring
: performances by Yehudi Menuhin, Edwin Fisher and Pablo Casals.
: Capitol
: claimed to be the owner of all rights in the United States to the
: original recordings.  Capitol complained that Naxos sold and
: distributed its restorations of the original recordings throughout the
: United States in bad faith, at substantially discounted prices in
: direct competition with Capitol's recordings of the same
: performances,
: often in the same retail outlets.
:
: The Court, in finding for Naxos, noted that Naxos used the original
: discs, the so-called shellacs (78rpm shellac discs) to restore the
: performances.  The restorations involved artistic choices and the
: use
: of the latest digital software.  Naxos has distributed and sold its
: restorations at discount prices since about October, 1999
: throughout
: the United States.  The Court took notice of the fact the Naxos
: restorations have been widely praised by classical music critics.
:
: Naxos had claimed that EMI expressly disclaimed any exclusive
: commercial interest in the original recordings made more than 50
: years
: ago and that Capitol had, furthermore, failed to pursue many other
: companies engaging in restorations of the original recordings.  The
: Court completely agreed with Naxos.
:
: The Court found that Capitol has no rights in the original recordings
: and that the English copyrights in the recordings had long since
: expired.  The Court also found ambiguity concerning Capitol's chain
: of
: title in all agreements.  The Court further found that Capitol waived
: or abandoned any interests it had in the original recordings.
: Capitol's lax practices were found consistent with EMI's disclaimer
: of
: any intellectual property rights in any sound recordings made prior
: to
: 1957 and which are more than 50 years old.  Naxos therefore
: operated
: under the good faith belief that the recordings at issue are in the
: public domain, said the Court.
:
: The Court further found that Naxos has not competed unfairly.
: Since
: Capitol has no rights in the original recordings it cannot charge
: Naxos with unfair competition.  Naxos never falsely advertised its
: restored products as duplicates of the originals and did not simply
: copy Capitol/EMI's restorations.  Naxos employed significant effort
: to
: create entirely new and commercially viable products.  Naxos did
: not
: profit from the labour, skill, expenditures, name and reputation of
: others but rather created and marketed new products relying on its
: own
: labour, skill, and reputation.
:
: The Court found that the quality and nature of the restorations stand
: as evidence to the fact that Naxos did not aim to simply duplicate
: the
: original recordings and capitalize on Capitol's efforts.  Instead,
: Naxos worked to create new products with superior sound.
:
: The Court agreed that the Naxos restorations do not discourage but
: rather encourage the preservation and dissemination of fine
: performances. The Court even felt that it was possible that the
: Naxos
: restorations have revived the relevant market in historical classical
: performances to Capitol's benefit.  The Naxos restorations help
: ensure
: that quality historic performances are commercially available for the
: present generation and well preserved for the next, the Court said.
:
: The Court clearly concluded that Naxos lacks the bad faith
: necessary
: in a common law unfair competition claim because Naxos neither
: attempted to sell its records as Capitol's, nor sell Capitol's records
: as its own.  Naxos did not misappropriate Capitol's labour and
: expenditures, but rather sought to profit from its own efforts and
: ingenuity.
:
: The Naxos motion to dismiss the Capitol action was granted by the
: court and converted to a summary judgment.  The Capitol motion for
: partial summary judgment was denied.  All substantive issues were
: decided in the favour of Naxos.
:
: ------- End of forwarded message -------