Range Road Music, Inc. v. East Coast Foods, Inc.

East Coast Foods, Inc. (East Coast) and Herbert Hudson appeal the district court’s grant of summary judgment to PlaintiffsAppellees (collectively, the “Music Companies”) for eight counts of copyright infringement, as well as the district court’s award of attorney’s fees and costs to the Music Companies. We affirm.

I. Background

The Music Companies own the copyrights to the eight songs at issue in this appeal, and are members of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP). ASCAP is a “performing rights society,” a nonprofit organization that licenses the music of its members and collects royalties whenever that music is performed publicly. See Broad. Music, Inc. v. Columbia Broad. Sys., Inc., 441 U.S. 1, 4-5 , 99 S.Ct. 1551 , 60 L.Ed.2d 1 (1979).

East Coast owns and operates the Roscoe’s House of Chicken and Waffles chain of restaurants in Southern California. There are five Roscoe’s restaurants, located in Pasadena, Hollywood, Los Angeles, West Los Angeles, and Long Beach. The co-defendant, Herbert Hudson, is the sole officer and director of East Coast.

The Long Beach Roscoe’s opened in 2001. Attached to the restaurant is a bar and lounge area…