Loomis v. Cornish, No. 13-57093 (9th Cir. 2016)
Annotate this CasePlaintiff, the composer of a song called "Bright Red Chords," filed suit alleging that defendant, publicly known as Jessie J, and a team of high-profile songwriters led by Dr. Luke, stole a two-measure melody from Bright Red Chords. Plaintiff alleged that defendants used the melody in their hit song "Domino." The district court granted defendants' motion for summary judgment. The court concluded that plaintiff’s arguments in this case tell a story that, if adequately substantiated, might have survived summary judgment. The problem is that it was not supported by potentially admissible evidence. The court concluded that, at bottom, the record consists primarily of plaintiff's speculations of access unsupported by personal knowledge. The other evidence did not fill the breach. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment.
Court Description: Copyright. The panel affirmed the district court’s summary judgment in favor of the defendants in a copyright infringement case. Will Loomis, composer of the song “Bright Red Chords,” alleged that the defendants stole a two-measure vocal melody and used it as the theme for the verse melody in their hit song “Domino.” The panel held that Loomis did not put forth any potentially admissible evidence to establish that the Domino songwriters had access to Bright Red Chords, either on a chain-of-events theory or a widespread-dissemination theory. Accordingly, he failed to establish copyright infringement.
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