Murphy v. Millennium Radio Group LLC is a 2011 U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals case concerning the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), copyright infringement, and defamation with regards to the online posting of a photocopy of a magazine photograph. After New Jersey radio station WKXW 101.5 copied onto its website a magazine picture of two of the station's talk show hosts, Craig Carton and Ray Rossi, the photographer of the picture, Peter Murphy, brought a suit against station owner Millennium Radio Group, as well as Carton and Rossi. The Third Circuit ruled that the station's actions did constitute both a violation of the DMCA and copyright infringement, which vacated the district court's judgment.
This case marked the first time a circuit court weighed in on the scope of DMCA §1202, which prohibits the removal of Copyright Management Information (CMI). CMI is a collection of facts about the copyright on a work that is somehow attached to that work. The Third Circuit stated that the statute applied to all CMI, and was not limited to CMI in technological systems.
Background
The March 2006 issue of New Jersey Monthly magazine included a "Best of New Jersey" article, which featured Craig Carton and Ray Rossi as the best shock jocks of the year. The article included a photograph of the two radio hosts, which had been taken by Peter Murphy, an independent contractor for the magazine. Carton and Rossi's radio station, WKXW 101.5, then copied that picture onto its website by scanning the magazine. The photographer's credit, which appeared as fine print in the magazine page's gutter, was cut off from the picture uploaded to the website. In addition, the station encouraged its listeners to submit "photoshopped" versions of the picture. The station also published these listener-modified copies of the picture on its website.
In June 2007, Murphy's attorney sent a notice of copyright infringement to WKXW, demanding that the station stop its infringing activities. WKXW complied with the request, removing the unaltered picture as well as all of the user-modified versions from its website. In response, Carton and Rossi complained on air about Murphy's conduct, allegedly saying that Murphy was "not to be trusted" and that people "should avoid doing business" with him. Carton and Rossi also alleged that Murphy "was a homosexual."
In April 2008, Murphy brought suit for direct, contributory, and vicarious copyright infringement, violation of the DMCA, and defamation of character against Millennium Radio Group, Carton, and Rossi. On March 31, 2010, New Jersey District Court ruled in favor of the radio station on all counts in a summary judgment without oral arguments.
Opinion of the Court
On June 14, 2011, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the district court's decision, vacating the previous ruling on all counts.
Violation of the DMCA
Murphy claimed that WKXW's removal of his photographer's credit when copying the picture constituted a violation of the DMCA under 17 U.S.C. §1202(b), which states in part:
Copyright management information (CMI) is defined in 17 U.S.C. §1202(c), quoted in part as follows:
The district court relied on the decision from IQ Group v. Wiesner, which stated that due to the legislative history of the DMCA, CMI should be interpreted as "a component of an automated copyright protection or management system." Using this analysis, the district court concluded that a print credit in a magazine is not CMI under the DMCA, and removing the credit is not a violation of §1202.
The Third Circuit disagreed with the district court's interpretation, holding that the wording of §1202 did not limit its scope to copyright management information only as part of automated systems. As this was the first appellate court to address the scope of CMI in the DMCA, the Third Circuit relied primarily on a plain reading of §1202 to make its decision. The court also addressed the intention of §1202, and found that there was no obvious contradiction between the plain wording and the goal of the legislation. The Third Circuit therefore held that the actions of the radio station and talk show hosts did constitute removal of CMI under the DMCA.
Copyright Infringement
Murphy alleged direct infringement for the station's use of the unaltered picture, and contributory and vicarious infringement for the user-modified pictures. The defendants claimed that the station's actions qualified as fair use under the Copyright Act.