PCB Productions v. MJC America CA2/4

BACKGROUND

PCB produces digital soundtracks and audio for motion pictures, television, video games, and other media. PCB’s credits include the Call of Duty series of video games, Transformers, Lord of the Rings, the Spiderman series, the X-Men series, and the Guitar Hero video game series. PCB’s two sound studios, Studio A and Studio B, are located in a separate wing of PCB president Keith Arem’s home. Studio B, where the fire occurred, was built with thick concrete walls, steel doors, fire retardant materials, insulated vents, sound traps, and

2 special filters to remove dust from the room. Studio B also had a special air conditioning system that was designed to keep cool air flowing onto the computers. The computers and other essential studio equipment were kept in a cabinet or console near a wall. Arem noticed that the air behind the computers was not circulating and decided to purchase a fan that could be placed behind the cabinet. In June 2008, Arem went to a Fry’s store and told the salesperson that he was looking for a fan that could be used on a continuous basis to circulate the air behind the computer console in the sound studio. The salesperson told Arem that the table…