Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. V. Fung
FOR PUBLICATION UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT COLUMBIA PICTURES INDUSTRIES, No. 10-55946 INC.; DISNEY ENTERPRISES, INC.; PARAMOUNT PICTURES D.C. No. CORPORATION; TRISTAR PICTURES, 2:06-cv-05578- INC.; TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX SVW-JC FILM CORPORATION; UNIVERSAL CITY STUDIOS LLLP; UNIVERSAL CITY STUDIOS PRODUCTIONS, LLLP; OPINION WARNER BROS ENTERTAINMENT, INC., Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. GARY FUNG; ISOHUNT WEB TECHNOLOGIES, INC., Defendants-Appellants. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California Stephen V. Wilson, District Judge, Presiding Argued May 6, 2011 Submitted March 21, 2013 Pasadena, California Filed March 21, 2013 2 COLUMBIA PICTURES INDUSTRIES V. FUNG Before: Harry Pregerson, Raymond C. Fisher, and Marsha S. Berzon, Circuit Judges. Opinion by Judge Berzon SUMMARY* Copyright The panel affirmed in part and vacated in part the district court’s judgment in favor of film studios, which alleged that the services offered and websites maintained by the defendants induced third parties to download infringing copies of the studios’ copyrighted works. Affirming the district court’s summary judgment, the panel held that under Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Inc. v. Grokster Ltd., 545 U.S. 913 (2005), the defendants were liable for contributory copyright infringement on an inducement theory because the plaintiffs established (1) distribution of a device or product, (2) acts of infringement, (3) an object of promoting the product’s use to infringe copyright, and (4) causation in the defendants’ use of the peer-to-peer file sharing protocol known as BitTorrent. The panel held that the defendants were not entitled to protection from liability under any of the safe harbor provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, including safe harbors provided by 17 U.S.C.
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