Bill Graham Archives v. Dorling Kindersley Ltd.

448 F.3d 605 (2nd Cir. 2006)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

D published Grateful Dead: The Illustrated Trip. The 480-page coffee-table book tells the story of the Grateful Dead along a timeline running continuously through the book, chronologically combining over 2000 images representing dates in the Grateful Dead's history with explanatory text. P claims to own the copyright to seven images displayed in the book. D sought permission from P to reproduce the images. Negotiations failed. D proceeded with publication and reproduced seven artistic images originally depicted on Grateful Dead event posters and tickets. The images are displayed in significantly reduced form and are accompanied by captions describing the concerts they represent. D refused to meet P's post-publication license fee demands. P filed suit for copyright infringement. The parties cross-moved for summary judgment. The issue before the district court was whether D's use of the images constituted fair use under the Copyright Act of 1976. The court applied the statutory fair use balancing test and found that the reproduction of the images was fair use. P appealed.