On Command Video Corp. v. Columbia Pictures Industries

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

Plaintiff seeks a declaratory judgment that its hotel video-movie viewing system does not infringe defendants’ copyrights in the movies shown through the system. All but one of the defendants have joined to counterclaim for damages for copyright infringement by plaintiff’s system. Before the Court are cross-motions for summary judgment on the issue of liability. Plaintiff, the designer and builder of an innovative video viewing system currently installed in a number of hotels, insists that a hotel occupant’s viewing of one or more of defendants’ movies through its system does not constitute a “public performance” under the 1976 Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. § 101 et seq. Defendants, seven major United States movie companies, contend that such viewings do constitute public performances and that plaintiff’s system therefore violates defendants’ exclusive right of public performance under § 106(4) of the Act.

I. Facts

The material facts of this case are not in dispute. On Command has developed a system for the electronic delivery of movie video tapes. The system consists of a computer program, a sophisticated electronic switch, and a bank of video cassette players…