Shostakovich v. Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp., 80 N.Y.S.2d

Case citation

Case citation is the system used in many countries to identify the decisions in past court cases, either in special series of books called reporters or law reports, or in a 'neutral' form which will identify a decision wherever it was reported...

 575 (N.Y. Sup. Ct.

New York Supreme Court

The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the trial-level court of general jurisdiction in thestate court system of New York, United States. There is a supreme court in each of New York State's 62 counties, although some smaller counties share judges with neighboring counties...

 1948), aff'd, 87 N.Y.S.2d 430 (N.Y. App. Div.

New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division

The Supreme Court of the State of New York, Appellate Division is the intermediate appellate court in New York State. The Appellate Division is composed of four departments .*The First Department covers the Bronx The Supreme Court of the State of New York, Appellate Division is the intermediate...

 1949), was a copyright lawsuit. In The Iron Curtain

The Iron Curtain (film)

The Iron Curtain is a 1948 black-and-white thriller film starring Dana Andrews and Gene Tierney. The film was supposedly based on the memoirs of Igor Gouzenko . The film was directed by William Wellman with photography done on location in Ottawa, Canada by Charles G. Clarke. The film was later...

, a 1948 motion picture depicting Soviet

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 espionage

Espionage

Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...

 in Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, Twentieth Century Fox

20th Century Fox

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...

 used compositions by composers, who were citizens and residents of the Soviet Union as background music, and on the film credited these composers with the compositions. The name of one of the composers, Dmitri Shostakovich

Dmitri Shostakovich

Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was a Soviet Russian composer and one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century....

 was also used in the picture when one of the characters therein incidentally referred to him in an appreciative manner. All of the music used was in the public domain

Public domain

Works are in the public domain if the intellectual property rights have expired, if the intellectual property rights are forfeited, or if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all...

 and had no copyright protection

Copyright protection

The term copyright protection may refer to two things:* The monopoly granted to authors by copyright, as in "The 1996 act provided additional copyright protection," or "Permission is not granted to use these images, which are protected by copyright."...

, therefore the court refused to enjoin the use of the names and the music.

Furthermore, the use of the composers' names in conjunction with the compositions is not subject to restraint under the New York State civil rights

Civil rights

Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...

 law (§ 51). In the absence of copyright, others may use the names of the authors in copyrighting, publishing or compiling their works.

Assuming that the publication of defamatory matter may be enjoined, there was no showing that the composers have been slandered or libeled

Slander and libel

Defamation—also called calumny, vilification, traducement, slander , and libel —is the communication of a statement that makes a claim, expressly stated or implied to be factual, that may give an individual, business, product, group, government, or nation a negative image...

. There is furthermore no indication in the motion picture that the composers participated in or gave their approval or indorsement to the picture nor is their approval of it "necessarily implied" therein. No such implication exists, necessarily or otherwise, where the work of the composer is in the public domain and may be freely published, copied or compiled by others.

The case foreshadowed Dastar v. Twentieth Century Fox

Dastar Corp. v. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp.

Dastar Corp. v. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp., 539 U.S. 23 , was a copyright and trademark case of the Supreme Court of the United States involving the applicability of the Lanham Act to a work in the public domain.-Background:...

over fifty years later.

(Source: public domain court decision.)