Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Lava v. Amurao Docket Entry Corrected; Declaratory Judgment Counterclaim Dismissed; Copyright Misuse Counterclaim Stands

In Lava v. Amurao, where the defendant had interposed two counterclaims -- one for a declaratory judgment of non-infringement and one seeking forfeiture of the copyrights due to copyright misuse -- the RIAA had moved to dismiss both counterclaims. The Court at oral argument had indicated that the declaratory judgment claim was unnecessary and would be dismissed, but the copyright misuse counterclaim would stand. However, the minute entry in the Court's docket sheet indicated that both counterclaims would stand.

Today the Court corrected the minute entry, confirming what had been said at oral argument: the declaratory judgment claim is dismissed; the copyright misuse claim is not dismissed.

June 27, 2007, Corrected Minute Entry in Docket Sheet Confirming First Counterclaim is Dismissed, Second Counterclaim is not dismissed*

* Document published online at Internet Law & Regulation

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3 comments:

Alter_Fritz said...

so now that this little confusion is finaly cleared, let us all press our thumbs that the judge will remember what he was thinking/saying with respect what the plaintiffs can do or can not do now;

9 THE COURT: That is dismissed on the ground
10 there's no need for declaratory judgment because the trial
11 on the general issue will cover it all.
[...]
13 MR. ALTMAN: I don't believe that I am, your
14 Honor. I think that I'm trying to obtain an affirmative --
15 I'm trying the keep the possibility -- or I should say
16 preclude the possibility that, as these plaintiffs in these
17 cases have done time and again, they simply walk away and
18 leave the issues unresolved.

19 THE COURT: You say that, but I don't know how
20 they can do that.
[...]
1 MR. ALTMAN: No, once I have filed a counterclaim,
2 your Honor, that's the issue. The issue is, as they have
3 done time and again in these cases, they simply walk away
4 from them.
5 THE COURT: But they can't do it here.

AMD FanBoi said...

Hey Ray,

Does this mean that the RIAA now has to go back in the other case where they cited this "dismissal" in papers arguing for dismissal of similar counterclaims there, and say, "Oops, Judge. We made a boo boo,"?

QuantumG said...

Copyright misuse, if only we heard those two words more often in court cases.