Hendrickson
Hendrickson v. Amazon. Com, Inc.
Opinion
Opinion
Hatter, J.
Memorandum Opinion
Robert Hendrickson (“Hendrickson”) owns the copyright to the movie Manson, which he has not released, or authorized to be released, in a digital video disc (“DVD”) format. Thus, all copies of Manson sold in a DVD format infringe upon Hendrickson’s copyright. 17 U.S.C. § 106 (3).
On January 28, 2002, Hendrickson sent a letter to Amazon.com, Inc. (“Amazon”), notifying it that all copies of Manson on DVD infringe his copyright. On October 21, 2002, Hendrickson noticed that a Manson DVD was recently posted for sale by Demetrious Papaioannou (“Papaioannou”) on Amazon’s website. Two days later, Hendrickson purchased a copy of the DVD from Papaioannou, using Amazon’s website credit services to facilitate the transaction.
Hendrickson, then, filed this action against Amazon and Papaioannou. He asserts claims for direct copyright infringement against Amazon and Papaioannou, as well as a vicarious copyright infringement claim against Amazon. Amazon moved for summary judgment, asserting that it is not liable for direct copyright infringement, and that it is protected against vicarious infringement by the safe harbor provision of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act…