J&N Publishing L.L.C. v. Blu Ice Entertainment, L.L.C.
- Edward Chen
- 3:19-cv-01029
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 4
In J&N Publishing v. Blu Ice Entertainment, Judge Chen granted default judgment for copyright infringement, awarding $45,000 and fees and imposing a limited injunction.
J&N Publishing L.L.C. and the other plaintiffs received default judgment, statutory damages, attorney’s fees and costs, and a permanent injunction limited to musical compositions they owned. Blu Ice Entertainment, L.L.C. and the other defendants were subject to the injunction and monetary judgment.
What happened
J&N Publishing L.L.C. and others sued Blu Ice Entertainment, L.L.C. and others for copyright infringement. The court reviewed a report and recommendation on the plaintiffs’ motion for default judgment and agreed that the plaintiffs were entitled to judgment on liability.
The court rejected parts of the recommended relief. It limited the injunction to copyrighted musical compositions owned by the plaintiffs, rather than all compositions in the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers repertory. It also reduced the recommended statutory damages from $60,000 to $45,000 because the evidence showed infringement on essentially one night and did not establish infringement throughout the entire period claimed.
Judge Chen granted the plaintiffs’ motion for default judgment, permanently enjoined the defendants from publicly performing the plaintiffs’ copyrighted compositions at their establishments, awarded $45,000 in statutory damages, and awarded $16,662.33 in attorney’s fees and costs. The clerk was directed to enter final judgment and close the case.
The detailed version
- J&N Publishing L.L.C. v. Blu Ice Entertainment, L.L.C. · No. 3:19-cv-01029
- Edward Chen
- Nov. 12, 2019
Background
The court considered plaintiffs’ motion for default judgment on a copyright-infringement claim and Judge Laporte’s report and recommendation. The court adopted the recommendation in part and rejected it in part. It agreed with the recommendation that plaintiffs were entitled to judgment in their favor on liability.
Injunction
The court rejected the recommended scope of the permanent injunction. It concluded that the injunction could cover “any copyrighted musical composition owned by Plaintiffs,” but could not extend to every copyrighted musical composition in the ASCAP repertory. The court reasoned that plaintiffs did not appear to have standing to seek an injunction concerning songs they did not own, the case was not a class action, and ASCAP was not a party. The court also noted that plaintiffs had identified infringement involving only three songs and that their complaint sought relief concerning those compositions. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 54(c) provides that a default judgment cannot differ in kind from, or exceed in amount, what the pleadings demand.
Damages
Judge Chen also rejected the recommended $60,000 statutory-damages award. Plaintiffs had calculated that amount using assumed licensing fees for infringement from October 2015 through the present, but the evidence showed infringement on essentially one night. The court found that plaintiffs had not shown that additional infringement occurred throughout the four-year period or that it could reasonably be inferred. It awarded $45,000 in statutory damages, or $15,000 for each of the three infringed songs. The court found that amount appropriate under the range described in the Copyright Act and sufficient to have a deterrent effect.
Order
The court granted plaintiffs’ motion for default judgment. It permanently enjoined the defendants, and people or entities acting with them, from publicly performing or causing the public performance of any copyrighted musical composition owned by plaintiffs at Roccapulco Supper Club or any other place owned, controlled, managed, or operated by defendants. The court awarded plaintiffs $45,000 in statutory damages and $16,662.33 in attorney’s fees and costs. It directed the clerk to enter final judgment and close the file.
Read the full 4-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.