Mirage Editions, Inc. v. Albuquerque A.R.T. Co.

856 F.2d 1341 (9th Cir. 1988)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

Nagel was an artist whose works appeared in lithographs, posters, serigraphs, and as graphic art in many magazines, most notably Playboy. Nagel died in 1984. His widow Jennifer Dumas owns the copyrights to the Nagel artworks which Nagel owned at the time of his death. P is the exclusive publisher of Nagel's works and also owns the copyrights to many of those works. Dumas and P own all of the copyrights to Nagel's works. D purchases artwork prints or books including good quality artwork page prints therein and glues the art onto a black sheet and then glues that onto white ceramic tile. D applies a transparent plastic film over the print, black sheet, and ceramic tile surface and then sells the finished product. D did the above process with the Nagel book. D removed selected pages from the book, mounted them individually onto ceramic tiles, and sold the tiles at retail. Ps sued D for infringement. Ps moved for summary judgment on the copyright claim which was granted. The district court concluded that D infringed the copyrights in the individual images through its tile-preparing process and also concluded that the resulting products comprised derivative works. The court also enjoined Ds from removing individual art images from the book, mounting each individual image onto a separate tile, and advertising for sale and/or selling the tiles with the images mounted thereon. D appealed. D contends that there has been no copyright infringement because (1) its tiles are not derivative works, and (2) the 'first sale' doctrine precludes a finding of infringement.