Rubin v. Brooks/Cole Publishing Co.

836 F. Supp. 909, 29 U.S.P.Q. 2d (BNA) 1335, 1993 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19104, 1993 WL 484892
CourtDistrict Court, D. Massachusetts
DecidedOctober 29, 1993
DocketCiv. A. 90-12011-Y
StatusPublished
Cited by26 cases

This text of 836 F. Supp. 909 (Rubin v. Brooks/Cole Publishing Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Massachusetts primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rubin v. Brooks/Cole Publishing Co., 836 F. Supp. 909, 29 U.S.P.Q. 2d (BNA) 1335, 1993 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19104, 1993 WL 484892 (D. Mass. 1993).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

YOUNG, District Judge.

“It is said that hard cases make bad law. This is a hard case.” Scarpa v. DuBois, No. Civ. A. 92-12948, 1993 WL 245655 (D.Mass. June 24, 1993). As such, it is one that cries out for a fact-specific judgment, not the application of a sweeping principle. The matter comes before the Court as a case stated. That is, the parties have stipulated to all matei’ial facts and it remains for this Court to review the record, draw such inferences as are reasonable and, applying the governing law, enter such judgment as may be appropriate. Continental Grain v. Puerto Rico Maritime Shipping Auth., 972 F.2d 426, 429 (1st Cir.1992); Boston Five Cents Sav. Bank v. Secretary of Housing & Urban Development, 768 F.2d 5, 12 (1st Cir.1985).

Psychologist and author Zick Rubin (“Rubin”) is the creator of a copyrighted psychological instrument known as the “Love Scale.” Rubin here sues Brooks/Cole Publishing Co. (“Brooks/Cole”) and its parent company Wadsworth, Inc. (“Wadsworth”) for copyright infringement under 17 U.S.C. § 501, and for unfair competition and unfair and deceptive business practices under Mass. Gen.L. ch. 93A. Rubin bases his claims upon Brooks/Cole’s reproduction of the Love Scale without his permission in several editions of its textbook Social Psychology, initially published in 1986. In resolving Rubin’s claims, this Court necessarily must address both the *913 scope of the fair use doctrine and the preemptive reach of the Copyright Act upon related state law causes of action.

I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND

A. The Love Scale and its Market

In 1968 and 1969, Rubin, who is now an adjunct professor of psychology at Brandéis University, created a self-report instrument called a “Love Scale,” together with a parallel “Liking Scale,” as a central part of his doctoral work in social psychology at the University of Michigan. In 1969, Rubin published his Love and Liking Scales in his doctoral dissertation, “The Social Psychology of Romantic Love,” (Joint Pre-Trial Mem. Ex. 2), for which he secured Copyright No. A146094 in his own name. Rubin’s dissertation is based on the theory that love consists of three critical components — “affiliative and dependent need,” “pre-disposition to help,” and “exclusiveness and absorption” — and incorporates the Love and Liking Scales (which each consists of 13 questions designed to elicit and rate one’s feelings toward another person) as research instruments designed to exemplify and validate his theory.

In 1970, Rubin again published the Love and Liking Scales in his article “Measurement of Romantic Love,” (Defs.’ Mem.Supp. Summ.J.Ex. B), appearing in the October 1970 issue of Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, published by the American Psychological Association (“APA”). The APA secured Copyright No. B624309 on that issue, but in 1978 assigned to Rubin that portion of the copyright which covered his article. In 1973, Rubin published the Love Scale in his social psychology textbook, Liking and Loving: An Approach to Social Psychology, (see Rubin Aff.Ex. D), published by Holt, Rinehart & Winston. Holt, Rinehart & Winston originally secured copyright No. A582977 on the book, but transferred the copyright to Rubin in 1978. Liking and Loving has been widely adopted in social psychology courses and has sold more than 50,000 copies. (Rubin Aff. ¶ 12.) In 1974, an excerpt from Liking and Loving that included the Love Scale was reprinted by permission in an anthology that Rubin edited entitled Doing Unto Others: Joining, Molding, Conforming, Helping, Loving, published by Prentice-Hall Spectrum Books. (Rubin Aff. 1120.) Rubin has received substantial royalties from the sales of Doing Unto Others. (Id.)

In February 1975, Reader’s Digest expressed an interest in reprinting the Love Scale and offered to pay Rubin “well” in the event of such a use. (Rubin Aff. ¶ 24 & Ex. K.) Rubin declined such permission. In August 1977, Boston Magazine reprinted the Love Scale (along with the parallel Liking Scale) as a self-test, without receiving permission from Rubin or any other copyright holder. (Rubin Aff. 1125.) Rubin sued Boston Magazine for copyright infringement and was awarded statutory damages and attorney fees. (Id.) The award was upheld by the Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. Rubin v. Boston Magazine Co., 645 F.2d 80 (1st Cir.1981). The Love Scale also appeared in two psychology texts in the mid-1970s without Rubin’s permission, and Rubin obtained a promise from at least one of the authors that the Love Scale would be deleted from future editions of that author’s book. (Rubin Dep. at 20-25.)

In 1981, Harper & Row published an introductory textbook written by Rubin and a coauthor, The Psychology of Being Human, along with an accompanying activity book by William Gray and Brian Gerrard, Understanding Yourself and Others: A Student Activity Book of Psychological Experiments and Activities. Understanding Yourself and Others was marketed in conjunction with The Psychology of Being Human and included, with Rubin’s permission, the full text of the Love Scale to be used as a student self-test. (Rubin Aff. ¶¶ 14-15 & Ex.H.) The Psychology of Being Human sold more than 130,000 copies and Rubin received substantial revenues from those sales. (Rubin Aff. ¶ 16.)

Rubin has received (and continues to receive) many requests from publishing houses and authors to reprint the Love Scale (often together with his parallel Liking Scale) in textbooks and other publications. (Rubin Aff. ¶ 18 & Ex. I; Rubin Dep. at 47.) Rubin has customarily declined such requests to reprint the Love Scale in full, but has consis *914 tently given authors and publishers permission to reprint up to three sample items for no fee, and has consistently allowed “legitimate researchers” to use the entire Love Scale in research for no fee. (Rubin Aff. ¶ 19; Rubin Dep. at 57.) Rubin has also allowed the Love Scale to be reprinted in full on at least ten occasions since 1974 either by itself (sometimes together with the Liking Scale) or as part of a longer article or excerpt, on “many” of these occasions for a fee. (Rubin Aff. ¶¶ 19, 21; Rubin Dep. at 13-14.) Rubin’s article “Measurement of Romantic Love,” for example, has been reprinted in at least six anthologies and books of readings to date, including Wayne Lesko’s Readings in Social- Psychology, published in 1991. (Rubin Aff. ¶ 21 & Ex. J.)

Rubin’s Love Scale is considered by a large number of psychologists and social psychologists to be an important scientific work, (Rubin Aff. ¶ 44), and both “Measurement of Romantic Love” and Liking and Loving

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836 F. Supp. 909, 29 U.S.P.Q. 2d (BNA) 1335, 1993 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19104, 1993 WL 484892, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rubin-v-brookscole-publishing-co-mad-1993.