statutes at issue in that case referred to “persons” or “individuals.” Id. Instead, the court crafted a simple rule of statutory interpretation: if an Act of Congress plainly states that animals have statutory standing, then animals have statutory standing. If the statute does not so plainly state, then animals do not have statutory standing. The Copyright Act does not expressly authorize animals to file copyright infringement suits under the statute.[1] Therefore, based on this court’s precedent in Cetacean, Naruto lacks statutory standing to sue under the Copyright Act.[2]
Several provisions of the Copyright Act also persuade us against the conclusion that animals have statutory standing to sue under the Copyright Act. See Davis v. Mich. Dep’t of Treasury, 489 U.S. 803, 809, 109 S.Ct. 1500, 103 L.Ed.2d 891 (1989) (“It is a fundamental canon of statutory construction that the words of a statute must be read in their context and with a view to their place in the overall statutory scheme.”). For example, the “children” of an “author,” “whether legitimate or not,” can inherit certain rights under the Copyright Act. See 17 U.S.C. §§ 101, 201, 203, 304. Also, an author’s “widow or widower owns the author’s entire termination interest unless there are any surviving children or grandchildren of the author, in which case the widow or widower owns one-half of the author’s interest.” Id. § 203(a)(2)(A). The terms’ “children,” “grandchildren,” “legitimate,” “widow,” and “widower” all imply humanity and necessarily exclude animals that do not marry and do not have heirs entitled to property by law. Based on this court’s decision in Cetacean and the text of the Copyright Act as a whole, the district court did not err in concluding that Naruto—and, more broadly, animals other than humans—lack statutory standing to sue under the Copyright Act.
- ↑ PETA also argues that the Copyright Act contemplates statutory standing for animals because it permits statutory standing for corporations and unincorporated associations without express authorization for those non-human entities. That argument does not refute the requirement, established in Cetacean, that Congress plainly state any grant of statutory standing to animals, Also, the Supreme Court has held corporations to be “persons” for standing, both for constitutional and statutory purposes. See, e.g., Citizens United v. Fed. Election Comm’n, 558 U.S. 310, 341–42, 130 S.Ct. 876, 175 L.Ed.2d 753 (2010) (concluding that corporations—associations of persons—have speech rights under the First Amendment); Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., – U.S. —, 134 S.Ct. 2751, 2768, 189 L.Ed.2d 675 (2014) (concluding that the plaintiff corporation was a “person” under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993). Moreover, corporations and unincorporated associations are formed and owned by humans; they are not formed or owned by animals. See Bank of the U.S. v. Deveaux, 9 U.S. 61, 92, 5 Cranch 61, 3 L.Ed. 38 (1806) (looking to “the character of the individuals who compose the corporation” in recognizing for the first time the capacity of corporations to sue in federal court).
- ↑ PETA also argues that Cetacean is distinguishable because the statutes at issue in Cetacean represented a waiver of the United States’ sovereign immunity, and such waivers, unlike the Copyright Act, are narrowly construed. See United States v. Nordic Vill., Inc., 503 U.S. 30, 34, 112 S.Ct. 1011, 117 L.Ed.2d 181 (1992) (“[T]he Government’s consent to be sued ‘must be construed strictly in favor of the sovereign’….”) (citation omitted). However this court never mentioned sovereign immunity in Cetacean, nor did it imply that it narrowly construed the statutory language of the four statutes at issue under the canon of construction described by PETA to reach its decision.
defendants’ motion for summary judgment because the dolphin lacked standing to sue under the MMPA. Id. (“This court will not impute to Congress or the President the intention to provide standing to a marine mammal without a clear statement in the statute.”). The plaintiffs did not file an appeal. Id.
