throbber
NOT FOR PUBLICATION
`
`UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
`
`FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
`
`
`FILED
`
`
`OCT 28 2019
`
`MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK
`U.S. COURT OF APPEALS
`
`
`
`
`No. 18-55426
`
`
`D.C. No.
`2:17-cv-06882-MWF-AS
`
`
`
`MEMORANDUM*
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
` Plaintiffs-Appellants,
`
`SEAN HALL, doing business as Gimme
`Some Hot Sauce Music, an individual;
`NATHAN BUTLER, doing business as
`Faith Force Music, an individual,
`
`
`
` v.
`
`
`TAYLOR SWIFT, an individual; et al.,
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
` Defendants-Appellees.
`
`
`
`Appeal from the United States District Court
`for the Central District of California
`Michael W. Fitzgerald, District Judge, Presiding
`
`Argued and Submitted October 15, 2019
`San Diego, California
`
`Before: HURWITZ, OWENS, and LEE, Circuit Judges.
`
`
`Sean Hall and Nathan Butler (together, Hall) appeal from the district court’s
`
`dismissal under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) of their complaint against
`
`Taylor Swift, Martin Sandberg, and Karl Schuster (together, Swift) alleging
`
`copyright infringement. The complaint alleged that Swift’s hit song Shake It Off
`
`
`*
` This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent
`
`
`except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3.
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`

`

`(2014) illegally copied a six-word phrase and a four-part lyrical sequence from
`
`Hall’s Playas Gon’ Play (2001). We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291,
`
`and we review de novo the district court’s dismissal under Rule 12(b)(6). See
`
`Dougherty v. City of Covina, 654 F.3d 892, 897 (9th Cir. 2011). As the parties are
`
`familiar with the facts, we do not recount them here. We reverse and remand.
`
`The district court dismissed the complaint based on a lack of originality in
`
`the pertinent portions of Hall’s work. See Satava v. Lowry, 323 F.3d 805, 810 (9th
`
`Cir. 2003) (“Any copyrighted expression must be ‘original.’ Although the amount
`
`of creative input . . . required to meet the originality standard is low, it is not
`
`negligible.” (citing Feist Publ’ns, Inc. v. Rural Tel. Serv. Co., Inc., 499 U.S. 340,
`
`345, 362 (1991))); see also 1 Nimmer on Copyright § 2.05[B] (2017) (noting that
`
`originality is established when “the work originates in the author” and “has a spark
`
`that goes beyond the banal or trivial”). Even taking into account the matters of
`
`which the district court took judicial notice, see United States v. Ritchie, 342 F.3d
`
`903, 907-08 (9th Cir. 2003), Hall’s complaint still plausibly alleged originality.
`
`See Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678 (2009).
`
`Originality, as we have long recognized, is normally a question of fact. See
`
`Dezendorf v. Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp., 99 F.2d 850, 851 (9th Cir. 1938)
`
`(stating that the “question of originality . . . is one of fact, not of law” (internal
`
`quotation marks omitted)). Indeed, as Justice Holmes long ago cautioned:
`
`
`
`2
`
`
`
`

`

`It would be a dangerous undertaking for persons trained only to
`the law to constitute themselves final judges of the worth of
`pictorial illustrations, outside of the narrowest and most obvious
`limits. At the one extreme, some works of genius would be sure
`to miss appreciation. Their very novelty would make them
`repulsive until the public had learned the new language in which
`their author spoke. . . . At the other end, copyright would be
`denied to pictures which appealed to a public less educated than
`the judge. . . . [A]nd the taste of any public is not to be treated
`with contempt.
`
`
`Bleistein v. Donaldson Lithographing Co., 188 U.S. 239, 251-52 (1903).
`
`Justice Holmes’ century-old warning remains valid. By concluding that,
`
`“for such short phrases to be protected under the Copyright Act, they must be more
`
`creative than the lyrics at issues here,” the district court constituted itself as the
`
`final judge of the worth of an expressive work. Because the absence of originality
`
`is not established either on the face of the complaint or through the judicially
`
`noticed matters, we reverse the district court’s dismissal under Rule 12(b)(6).1
`
`REVERSED and REMANDED.
`
`
`1 Swift argues that this Court should affirm the district court’s decision on other
`grounds. However, we decline to do so. The district court may consider Swift’s
`alternative arguments on remand.
`
`
`
`3
`
`
`
`

This document is available on Docket Alarm but you must sign up to view it.


Or .

Accessing this document will incur an additional charge of $.

After purchase, you can access this document again without charge.

Accept $ Charge
throbber

Still Working On It

This document is taking longer than usual to download. This can happen if we need to contact the court directly to obtain the document and their servers are running slowly.

Give it another minute or two to complete, and then try the refresh button.

throbber

A few More Minutes ... Still Working

It can take up to 5 minutes for us to download a document if the court servers are running slowly.

Thank you for your continued patience.

This document could not be displayed.

We could not find this document within its docket. Please go back to the docket page and check the link. If that does not work, go back to the docket and refresh it to pull the newest information.

Your account does not support viewing this document.

You need a Paid Account to view this document. Click here to change your account type.

Your account does not support viewing this document.

Set your membership status to view this document.

With a Docket Alarm membership, you'll get a whole lot more, including:

  • Up-to-date information for this case.
  • Email alerts whenever there is an update.
  • Full text search for other cases.
  • Get email alerts whenever a new case matches your search.

Become a Member

One Moment Please

The filing “” is large (MB) and is being downloaded.

Please refresh this page in a few minutes to see if the filing has been downloaded. The filing will also be emailed to you when the download completes.

Your document is on its way!

If you do not receive the document in five minutes, contact support at support@docketalarm.com.

Sealed Document

We are unable to display this document, it may be under a court ordered seal.

If you have proper credentials to access the file, you may proceed directly to the court's system using your government issued username and password.


Access Government Site

We are redirecting you
to a mobile optimized page.





Document Unreadable or Corrupt

Refresh this Document
Go to the Docket

We are unable to display this document.

Refresh this Document
Go to the Docket