Marcus v. Rowley

695 F.2d 1171 (1983)

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Marcus v. Rowley

United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
695 F.2d 1171 (1983)

  • Written by Meagan Messina, JD

Facts

After resigning as a home-economics teacher for the San Diego Unified School District (the district), Eloise Toby Marcus (plaintiff) wrote a booklet entitled Cake Decorating Made Easy. Marcus registered the copyright for the booklet, publishing 125 copies in 1975. All copies contained a designation of copyright, and Marcus sold all but six copies to students in the adult-education cake-decorating classes Marcus taught from 1975 to 1980. Shirley Rowley (defendant) taught food-service career classes in the district. Rowley took one of Marcus’ cake-decorating classes and purchased a copy of the booklet. The following summer, Rowley created a booklet entitled Cake Decorating Learning Activity Package (LAP) for use in Rowley’s classes from 1975 to 1977. Rowley had 15 copies of the LAP made and did not derive any profit from the LAP. Rowley copied 11 of the 24 pages in her LAP from Marcus’ booklet without giving Marcus credit or acknowledgment. Marcus learned of the LAP in the summer of 1977 when a student in Marcus’ adult-education class refused to buy Marcus’ booklet due to already having a copy of the LAP. Marcus brought suit against Rowley, alleging copyright infringement. Marcus and Rowley filed cross-motions for summary judgment. The trial court denied both motions and dismissed the case on the merits because Rowley’s copying constituted fair use. Marcus appealed.

Rule of Law

Issue

Holding and Reasoning (Pfaelzer, J.)

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