M. William Krasilovsky, New York City (Andrew J. Feinman, Feinman & Krasilovsky, Milton Rosenbloom, O’Brien, Driscoll, Raftery, Rosenbloom & Grainger, New York City, on the brief), for appellant.
Walter S. Beck, New York City (Phillips, Nizer, Benjamin, Krim & Ballon, New York City, on brief), for appellee.
Before HAYS and CAKES, Circuit Judges, and CLARIE, District Judge.[* 1]
HAYS, Circuit Judge:
This is an appeal from a judgment of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, which held that appellant had no copyright interest in the song “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf,” and that appellant had infringed appellee’s copyright in the song. The opinion of the district court is reported at 314 F.Supp. 640 (S.D.N.Y.1970), and the facts are set out more fully there.
In May, 1933, Walt Disney Productions, Inc. released an animated cartoon film entitled “The Three Little Pigs.” The film contained a musical score, portions of which agents of Disney and Irving Berlin, Inc., appellee’s predecessor in interest, believed could be adapted as a popular song. With Disney’s approval Berlin asked Ann Ronell, appellant’s predecessor in interest, to assist in the adaptation; she did so, rearranging the musical themes in collaboration with an employee of Berlin, and arranging the existing lyrics and adding new ones of her own. The trial court found that the new song was revised somewhat by another employee of Berlin and approved by Disney. In exchange for an agreement to pay certain royalties, Disney assigned all its rights in the new song to Berlin,[1] 314 F.Supp. at 643. Disney later agreed that either one-third or one-fourth of its royalties should be paid to Miss Ronell for her services.[2]
In 1960, the twenty-eighth year of the copyright, when the right to apply for a renewal accrued, 17 U.S.C. § 24 (1970), Miss Ronell for the first time asserted a one-half ownership interest in the copyright as a joint author, and obtained registration in her name, while Bourne, Berlin’s assignee, registered as “proprietor.”[3] In the present action,
- ↑ *Of the District of Connecticut, sitting by designation.
- ↑ Berlin obtained the copyright in the new song in its own name, crediting authorship to Miss Ronell and Frank E. Churchill, the Disney employee who had composed the original song.
- ↑ Miss Ronell claimed that the parties had agreed on one-third, but she eventually dropped the issue and accepted one-fourth of Disney’s share from 1933 to 1960. 314 F.Supp. at 643.
- ↑ It is apparently customary for the Register of Copyrights to allow conflicting
