Leadsinger, Inc. v. BMG Music Publishing
Opinion
Opinion
Phillips, J.
ORDER GRANTING DEFENDANTS’ MOTION TO DISMISS
The Court has received and considered all papers filed in support of, and in oppo sition to, Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss. The Motion is appropriate for resolution without hearing. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 78; Local Rule 7-15. For the reasons set forth below, the Motion is GRANTED.
I. BACKGROUND
Plaintiff Leadsinger, Inc. filed a Complaint (“Compl.”) on September 28, 2004, requesting declaratory judgment that it is authorized to display the lyrics to songs, either in print or displayed on a video screen, under Section 115 of the Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. § 115 or under the fair use doctrine, 17 U.S.C. § 107 . [Compl. ¶ 3J
A. Plaintiffs Allegations
Plaintiff is a karaoke company and Defendant is a music publisher that owns or administers the copyrights to musical compositions. [Id. at ¶¶ 18-19.] Plaintiffs karaoke device (“device”) is designed differently than other such devices. [Id. at ¶ 31.] Unlike “most karaoke record companies [that] put their recordings on cassettes, compact discs, or a compact disc + graphic or DVD format, which will display lyrics visually on a television screen when played in a karaoke machine connected to a…