Set forth below is a selective, chronological list of leading or illustrative judicial opinions pertaining to copyright law. The links that follow the case names and citations provide access to various versions of the opinions. Links designated “pdf” and “MSWord” correspond to versions of the cases that have been edited for teaching. Links designated “original” correspond to versions that have not been edited. Links designated “h2O” correspond to versions that have been edited but in which the portions that have been excised can be exposed or concealed at the user’s option.
- Baker v. Selden, 101 U.S. 99 (1879) [pdf] [MS Word] [h2o]
- Bleistein v. Donaldson Lithographing Co., 188 U.S. 239 (1903) [pdf] [MS Word] [h2o]
- Nichols v. Universal Pictures Corp., 45 F.2d 119 (2d Cir. 1930) [pdf] [MS Word] [h2o]
- Alexander v. Haley, 460 F.Supp. 40 (S.D.N.Y. 1978) [pdf] [MS Word] [h2o]
- A.A. Hoehling v. Universal City Studios, Inc., 618 F.2d 972 (2d Cir. 1980) [pdf] [MS Word] [h2o]
- Steinberg v. Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., 663 F.Supp. 706 (S.D.N.Y. 1987) [pdf] [MS Word] [h2o] [Illustrations]
- Community for Creative Non-Violence v. Reid, 490 U.S. 730 (1989) [pdf] [MS Word] [h2o]
- Frank Music Corp. v. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc., 886 F.2d 1545 (9th Cir. 1989) [pdf] [MS Word] [h2o]
- Stewart v. Abend, 495 U.S. 207 (1990) [pdf] [MS Word] [h2o]
- Feist Publications, Inc. v. Rural Telephone Service Co., 499 U.S. 340 (1991) [pdf] [MS Word][h2o]
- United States v. Moran, 757 F.Supp. 1046 (D.Neb. 1991) [pdf] [MS Word] [h2o]
- Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc., 510 U.S. 569 (1994) [pdf] [MS Word] [h2o]
- Avtec Systems, Inc. v. Peiffer, 21 F.3d 568 (4th Cir. 1994) [pdf] [MS Word] [h2o]
- Lotus Development Corporation v. Borland International, Inc., 49 F.3d 807 (1st Cir. 1995) [pdf] [MS Word] [h2o]
- Fantasy, Inc. v. Fogerty, 94 F.3d 553 (9th Cir. 1996) [pdf] [MS Word] [h2o]
- Hotaling v. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, 118 F.3d 199 (4th Cir. 1997) [pdf] [MS Word] [h2o]
- Lee v. A.R.T. Company, 125 F.3d 580 (7th Cir. 1997) [pdf] [MS Word] [h2o]
- Castle Rock Entertainment, Inc. v. Carol Publishing Group, Inc., 150 F.3d 132 (2d Cir. 1998) [pdf] [MS Word] [h2o] [Illustrations]
- Micro Star v. FormGen Inc., 154 F.3d 1107 (9th Cir. 1998) [pdf] [MS Word] [h2o]
- Martin v. City of Indianapolis, 192 F.3d 608 (7th Cir. 1999) [pdf] [MS Word] [h2o] [Illustrations]
- Aalmuhammed v. Lee, 202 F.3d 1227 (9th Cir. 1999) [pdf] [MS Word] [h2o]
- Lindsay v. The Wrecked and Abandoned Vessel R.M.S. Titanic, 52 U.S.P.Q.2d 1609 (S.D.N.Y. 1999) [pdf] [MS Word][h2o]
- Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. v. Connectix Corp., 203 F.3d 596 (9th Cir. 2000) [pdf] [MS Word] [h2o]
- Three Boys Music Corp. v. Michael Bolton, 212 F.3d 477 (9th Cir. 2000) [pdf] [MS Word] [h2o]
- New York Times Company v. Tasini, 533 U.S. 483 (2001) [pdf] [MS Word] [h2o]
- Boisson v. Banian, Ltd., 273 F.3d 262 (2d Cir. 2001) [pdf] [MS Word] [h2o] [Illustrations]
- Universal City Studios, Inc. v. Corley, 273 F.3d 429 (2d Cir. 2001) [pdf] [MS Word] [h2o]
- Eldred v. Ashcroft, 537 U.S.1 86 (2003) [pdf] [MS Word] [h2o]
- Dastar Corporation v. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, 539 U.S. 23 (2003) [pdf] [MS Word] [h2o]
- Swirsky v. Carey, 376 F.3d 841 (9th Cir. 2004) [pdf] [MS Word] [h2o]
- Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc. v. Grokster, 545 U.S. 913 (2005) [pdf] [MS Word] [h2o]
- Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. v. Jung, 422 F.3d 630 (8th Cir. 2005) [pdf] [MS Word] [h2o]
- Mannion v. Coors Brewing Co., 377 F.Supp. 2d 444 (S.D.N.Y. 2005) [pdf] [MS Word] [h2o] [Illustrations]
- Shine v. Childs, 382 F.Supp.2d 602 (2005) [pdf] [MS Word] [h2o] [Illustrations]
- Blanch v. Koons, 467 F.3d 244 (2d Cir. 2006) [pdf] [MS Word] [h2o] [Illustrations]
- Perfect 10 v. Amazon, 508 F.3d 1146 (9th Cir. 2007) [pdf] [MS Word] [h2o]
- Gaylord v. United States, 595 F.3d 1364 (Fed. Cir. 2010) [pdf] [MS Word] [h2o] [Illustrations]
- Salinger v. Colting, 607 F.3d 68 (2d Cir. 2010) [pdf] [MS Word] [h2o]
- Sony BMG Music Entertainment v. Tenenbaum, 660 F.3d 487 (1st Cir. 2011) [pdf] [MS Word] [h2o]
- Golan v. Holder, 2012 U.S. Lexis 907 (2012) [pdf] [MS Word] [h2o]
- Viacom v. YouTube, 676 F.3d 19 (CA2 2012) [pdf] [MS Word] [h2o]
- Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons (U.S. Supreme Court, March 19, 2013) [pdf] [MS Word] [h2o]
- Cariou v. Prince, Docket No. 11-1197-cv (2nd Cir. 2013) [pdf] [MS Word] [h2o]
- American Broadcasting Companies v. Aereo, Inc., 134 S.Ct. 2498 (2014) [pdf] [MS Word] [h2o]
- Oracle v. Google (Fed. Cir. 2014) [pdf] [MS Word] [h2o]
- DC Comics v. Towle, 802 F.3d 1012 (9th Cir. 2015) [pdf] [MS Word] [h20]
- Authors Guild v. Google, 804 F.3d 202 (2d Cir. 2015) [pdf] [MS Word] [h2o]
- Star Athletica v. Varsity Brands (US Supreme Court 2017) [original]