Great Minds v. Office Depot, Inc., No. 18-55331 (9th Cir. 2019)
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The Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court's dismissal, for failure to state a claim, of an action brought by Great Minds, publisher of math curriculum Eureka Math. The complaint alleged a claim of copyright infringement against Office Depot.
The panel held that Office Depot did not itself become a licensee of the "Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International Public License" or otherwise infringe Great Minds' copyright by making copies of Eureka Math materials for a profit on behalf of school and school district licensees. In this case, there was no dispute that, if Office Depot were itself a licensee, commercial copying of Great Minds' material would fall outside the scope of the license and infringe Great Minds' copyright; under California law, the school and school district licensees' exercise of their rights under the license through the services provided by Office Depot did not result in Office Depot becoming a licensee; and the district court not abuse its discretion in denying leave to amend the complaint.
Court Description: Copyright. The panel affirmed the district court’s dismissal for failure to state a claim of a copyright infringement brought by Great Minds, publisher of math curriculum Eureka Math. The panel held that defendant Office Depot, Inc., did not become a licensee of a Creative Commons license, and become bound by its terms, or otherwise infringe Great Minds’ copyright by making copies of Eureka Math materials for a profit on behalf of school and school district licensees. There was no dispute that the school and school districts licensees’ copying of Great Minds’ material was permitted under the license. There also was no dispute that, if Office Depot were itself a licensee, commercial copying of Great Minds’ material would fall outside the scope of the license and infringe Great Minds’ copyright. The panel held that, under California law, the school and school district licensees’ exercise of their rights under the license through the services provided by Office Depot did not result in Office Depot becoming a licensee. The panel further held that the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying leave to amend the complaint. GREAT MINDS V. OFFICE DEPOT 3
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