Frost

Title 17 United States Code section 204 (a) (section 204), part of the Copyright Act of 1976 ( Pub.L. No. 94-553 (Oct. 19, 1976) 90 Stat. 2541 ), provides; “A transfer of copyright ownership, other than by operation of law, is not valid unless an instrument of conveyance, or a note or memorandum of the transfer, is in writing and signed by the owner of the rights conveyed or such owner’s duly authorized agent.” We affirm the entry of summary judgment against appellant MVP Entertainment, Inc. (MVP), because it failed to raise a triable issue of material fact that it had a valid *1336 transfer of copyright under section 204. No evidence showed that the purported transfer was signed by respondents Mark Frost’s and Good Comma Ink’s duly authorized agent, evidence of which was essential to each of appellant’s causes of action.

FACTS AND PROCEDURE

Frost wrote The Match: The Day the Game of Golf Changed Forever (2007) (The Match). The copyright for The Match is assigned to Good Comma Ink, of which Frost is the sole owner. MVP and its president, Robert Frederick, sought to obtain rights to make a movie based on The Match.

In late 2008 and early 2009, the parties’…