SUPREME COURT DECIDES THAT A RIGHT TO TRIAL BY JURY EXISTS FOR ALL COPYRIGHT CASES IN WHICH DAMAGES ARE SOUGHT
(1998)

The U.S. Supreme Court decided in April 1998 that when a copyright owner elects to recover statutory damages pursuant to Section 504(c) of the Federal Copyright Act (17 U.S.C. § 101, et. seq.), there is a right to a jury trial to determine the amount of those damages. The facts of the case are the following:

Columbia Pictures sued Feltner, an owner of televisions stations, for copyright infringement based on Feltner's broadcasting of several television programs without an appropriate license agreement. (Columbia Pictures had previously terminated the television stations' license agreements for Feltner's failure to pay royalties.) The trial judge, without a jury, held that each episode of each series constituted a separate work and that each airing constituted a separate violation, finding a total of 440 violations. The trial judge also found that the infringement was willful and fixed statutory damages at $20,000 per violation, for a total award of $8,800,000.

The Supreme Court reversed the findings of the District Court and held that Feltner was entitled to a jury trial. The Supreme Court determined that although the language of Section 504(c) does not grant a specific right to have a jury assess statutory damages, the Seventh Amendment of the United States Constitution does. Thus, in all copyright cases in which the copyright holder is seeking statutory damages, either side will be entitled to a jury.

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