The Fourth Circuit held today that the Copyright Act's requirement, at 17 U.S.C. 204(a), that transfers of copyright interests be "in writing and signed by the owner of the rights conveyed," can be satisfied by electronic means. The court said that electronic transfers of copyright interests are permissible because of the federal E-Sign Act, which provides that an electronic contract may not be denied legal effect merely because it was created by electronic means, 15 U.S.C. 7001(a)(2).

The ruling is one of first impression at the circuit level. The court identified a similar district court ruling, Vergara Hermosilla v. Coca-Cola Inc., No. 10-21418 (S.D. Fla., Feb. 23, 2011), in which the court held that a copyright assignment via email was valid notwithstanding Section 204(a)'s "writing" requirement.

The court's ruling adds certainty to a contracting practice that is already prevalent on the internet. The court, further insulating electronic transfers of copyright interests from legal challenge, also complained -- with citations to authority -- that the purpose of Section 204(a)'s writing requirement was to police the transaction between the assignor and the assignee of a copyright interest, not to provide third-parties with a defense to an infringement claim.

Along the way, the court ruled that the plaintiff's registration of a collection of photographs and text as automated database was not invalid merely because the plaintiff failed to list the names and authors of each component work in the collection. The database at issue here was a collection of real estate listings and photographs. There are cases holding that copyright registrations that fail to identify the authors of each component of a collective work do not meet Section 409's pre-suit registration requirement. The court here sided with those courts that have not required this level of specificity, citing a recent case from the Northern District of California, craigslist Inc. v. 3Taps Inc., No. 12-03816 (N.D. Cal., April 29, 2013), holding that craigslist's registration of its website as a collective work met the pre-suit registration requirement even though craigslist failed to identify the individual authors of each classified ad covered by its copyright registration.

Metropolitan Regional Information Systems Inc. v. American Home Realty Network Inc., No. 12-102 (4th Cir., July 17, 2013).

By Thomas O'Toole  

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