Michael Foundation, Inc. v. Urantia Foundation

61 F. App'x 538
Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit·Decided March 11, 2003·No. 01-6347, 01-6348·Unpublished·Cited by 1 cases

Opinions

ORDER AND JUDGMENT**

TACHA, Chief Circuit Judge.

Declaratory judgment defendant, third-party and counterclaim plaintiff Urantia Foundation appeals the district court’s denial of its renewed motion for judgment as a matter of law and its alternative motion for a new trial. We exercise jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and AFFIRM.

I. Background

Urantia Foundation is a charitable trust formed under Illinois law. Michael Foundation is a non-profit corporation orga[541] nized under Oklahoma law. This appeal arises out of the parties’ dispute as to the present validity of Urantia Foundation’s copyright in The Urantia Book, a document comprising the scriptural basis for the Urantia movement. The history of the composition of The Urantia Book, or such of that history as is available, bears directly upon the resolution of this case.

In approximately 1900, an unknown patient (“the Conduit”) sought psychiatric help from Dr. William Sadler.1 The Conduit behaved strangely in his sleep, and during sessions with the Conduit, Dr. Sadler became convinced that the Conduit was channeling “celestial personalities.” At some point, the Conduit began presenting Dr. Sadler with handwritten “papers,” purportedly consisting of the fruits of his communion with these celestial beings. Sometime later in the course of his treatment, Dr. Sadler opened up his sessions with the Conduit to a group of relatives that referred to itself as “The Contact Commission.” During its sessions with the Conduit, the Contact Commission prepared stenographic notes of the Conduit’s celestial dialogs, but it destroyed most of them. The notes formed no part of The Urantia Book.

In 1924, after approximately twenty years of treatment and generating “papers,” the Conduit announced that he would compose The Urantia Book. He solicited questions from the Contact Commission to present to the celestial beings during his psychiatric sessions. Dr. Sadler formed a subgroup of the Contact Commission (“the Forum”) to prepare these questions. Between 1935 and 1942, ia response to these questions, the Conduit delivered a foreword and 196 handwritten “papers” that together constitute The Urantia Book. The Contact Commission reviewed the papers and typed them. It did not change their arrangement or edit them in any way other than to correct spelling and capitalization errors. It also destroyed all documents related to the questions presented to the Conduit. The Conduit was never compensated for his efforts in creating The Urantia Book.

In 1950, Urantia Foundation was formed in Illinois as a charitable trust. In 1955, the Conduit permitted The Urantia Book to be published, and later the same year Urantia Foundation published The Urantia Book under notice of copyright. Urantia Foundation registered its copyright in 1956 and currently holds the original and the 1983 renewal certificates as The Urantia Book’s “author”. In 1999, Michael Foundation, a non-profit corporation chaired by third-party defendant and appellee Harry McMullan III, himself a disaffected former adherent of the Urantia movement, published Jesus—A New Revelation, which reprints verbatim seventy-six of the 196 papers constituting The Urantia Book.

This litigation commenced when Michael Foundation and McMullan filed a declaratory judgment action seeking a declaration that Urantia Foundation’s copyright in The Urantia Book was invalid or, in the alternative, that their book did not infringe upon Urantia Foundation’s copyright. Urantia Foundation asserted numerous counterclaims against Michael Foundation and [542] third party claims against McMullan; it moved for summary judgment as to, inter alia, the validity of its renewal copyright in The Urantia Book. The district court denied its motion, and the ease proceeded to trial before a jury. At the close of evidence, the parties moved for judgment as a matter of law. The district court denied all such motions, and the jury returned a verdict in favor of Michael Foundation and McMullan. Urantia Foundation renewed its motion for judgment as a matter of law under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 50(b); it moved in the alternative for a new trial, asserting that the district court abused its discretion in excluding certain testimony. The district court denied both motions, and Urantia Foundation brought this appeal.

II. Discussion
A. The District Court’s Denial of Urantia Foundation’s Renewed Motion for Judgment as a Matter of Law
1. Classification of Works for Copyright Purposes

Urantia Foundation first registered its copyright in The Urantia Book in 1956. The continued validity of its copyright depends upon whether it effectively renewed that copyright in 1988. Under the governing renewal provisions, as a general rule, only the author or the author’s heirs could renew the copyright in a literary work at the expiration of the initial term, regardless of whether the author had conveyed those rights for the duration of the initial term. 17 U.S.C. § 304(a)(1)(C).2 The parties agree that neither the Conduit nor his heirs renewed the copyright in The Urantia Book. Urantia Foundation advances two theories to support its claim that it holds valid renewal rights in The Urantia Book under exceptions to the general rule: first, that The Urantia Book is a composite of discrete, individual works by the Conduit, rather than a unified work, and that Urantia Foundation, as proprietor of the copyright in that composite,3 was entitled to renew the copyright in both the compilation and in the underlying works; and second, that The Urantia Book is a commissioned work because Urantia Foundation’s predecessor in interest specially commissioned the Conduit to write The Urantia Book, entitling Urantia Foundation to renew its copyright as The Urantia Book’s “author” under a judicially created corollary to a statutory exception governing works created for hire.4 We consider each theory in turn.

Under the governing statute, if The Urantia Book is classified as a unified work by a single author, then Urantia Foundation cannot currently hold a valid renewal copyright because renewal rights in such works were not assignable until they vested, and the Conduit was dead by 1983. Thus, if The Urantia Book is a unified work, copyright transferred by operation of law to the Conduit’s heirs in 1983, and they are the only persons who could have renewed or assigned it to Urantia Foundation. Because they did not renew the [543] copyright, if The Urantia Book is a unified work, it now resides in the public domain.

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Michael Foundation, Inc. v. Urantia Foundation, 61 F. App'x 538 (10th Cir. 2003).

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