James H. Fischer v. Sandra F. Forrest, et al.

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act protects the integrity of copyright management information (“CMI”), a defined term. 17 U.S.C. § 1202(c). Section 1202(c) enumerates eight types of CMI. §1202(c)(1)- (8). Pertinent here, Section 1202(c) defines CMI as the “name” of the “author” of a copyrighted work and also as the “name” of the “copyright owner” of a work. §1202(c)(2), (c)(3). Here, an author and copyright owner of a work included his last name in the text of that work. The Second Circuit held that his name in the text was not CMI. Departing from the plain-text approach taken by the Third and Fifth Circuits, the Second Circuit held that being the name of the author or the copyright owner is not sufficient to be CMI. The Second Circuit further required that it be apparent from context that the name is copyright-related. Thus, the questions presented are:

1. Whether the name of the author of a copyrighted work is CMI—or whether it must also be apparent from context that the name is copyright-related.

2. Whether the name of the copyright owner of a copyrighted work is CMI—or whether it must also be apparent from context that the name is copyrightrelated.