Richardson v. Townsquare Media, Inc.

Summary

The Second Circuit reviewed a judgment on the pleadings in a copyright infringement action involving Townsquare Media’s publication and embedding of videos created by Delray Richardson. The court held that fair use of the entire Jordan Video could not be resolved in Townsquare’s favor at the pleading stage and that the de minimis doctrine did not bar claims concerning recognizable screenshots. It affirmed dismissal of the claim concerning the embedded Melle Mel Video because YouTube’s Terms of Service granted a license covering Townsquare’s use, vacated in part, and remanded.

Holdings

1. Townsquare was not entitled to judgment on the pleadings based on fair use because its republication of the entire Jordan Video plausibly provided viewers with a substitute for the original video, and the fair-use factors did not decisively favor Townsquare on the limited pleading-stage record.
2. The de minimis doctrine did not establish noninfringement as a matter of law because Townsquare prominently displayed recognizable screenshots as the backgrounds of article headlines, making the copyrighted works central rather than incidental to the secondary works.
3. YouTube's Terms of Service granted Townsquare a license to access and use the Melle Mel Video through YouTube's embedding feature, so Richardson's copyright claim based on Townsquare's embedding of that video was foreclosed.

Questions Presented

1. Whether Townsquare was entitled to judgment on the pleadings on its fair-use defense concerning its republication of the entire Jordan Video.
2. Whether Townsquare's use of screenshots from the Jordan and Melle Mel Videos was nonactionable de minimis copying.
3. Whether the license contained in YouTube's Terms of Service authorized Townsquare's embedding of the Melle Mel Video.
4. Whether the Second Circuit should resolve, at the pleading stage, whether embedding content constitutes actionable copying under the Copyright Act.

Disposition

other