346
Opinion of the Court
statutory damages. § 504(c)(2). These phrases, like the entire statutory provision, make no mention of a right to a jury trial or, for that matter, to juries at all.
The word "court" in this context appears to mean judge, not jury. Cf. F. W. Woolworth Co. v. Contemporary Arts, Inc., 344 U. S. 228, 232 (1952) (referring to the "judicial discretion" necessary for "the court's choice between a computed measure of damage and that imputed by" the Copyright Act of 1909 (emphasis added)). In fact, the other remedies provisions of the Copyright Act use the term "court" in contexts generally thought to confer authority on a judge, rather than a jury. See, e. g., § 502 ("court . . . may . . . grant temporary and final injunctions"); § 503(a) ("[T]he court may order the impounding . . . of all copies or phonorecords"); § 503(b) ("As part of a final judgment or decree, the court may order the destruction or other reasonable disposition of all copies or phonorecords"); § 505 ("[T]he court in its discretion may allow the recovery of full costs" of litigation, and "the court may also award a reasonable attorney's fee"). In contrast, the Copyright Act does not use the term "court" in the subsection addressing awards of actual damages and profits, see § 504(b), which generally are thought to constitute legal relief. See Dairy Queen, Inc. v. Wood, 369 U. S. 469, 477 (1962) (action for damages for trademark infringement "subject to cognizance by a court of law"); see also Arnstein v. Porter, 154 F. 2d 464, 468 (CA2 1946) (copy-right action for damages is "triable at 'law' and by a jury as of right"); Video Views, Inc. v. Studio 21, Ltd., 925 F. 2d 1010, 1014 (CA7 1991) ("little question that the right to a jury trial exists in a copyright infringement action when the copyright owner endeavors to prove and recover its actual damages"); 3 M. Nimmer & D. Nimmer, Nimmer on Copyright § 12.10[B] (1997) ("beyond dispute that a plaintiff who seeks to recover actual damages is entitled to a jury trial" (footnotes omitted)).
Page: Index Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007