## Facts

- Russian news agency Itar-Tass, its U.S. affiliate, multiple Russian-language newspaper and magazine publishers, and the Union of Journalists of Russia sued Russian Kurier, a New York Russian-language weekly, and its editor/publisher Oleg Pogrebnoy.
- Defendants copied and republished in New York large numbers of Russian-language articles originating in plaintiffs’ publications or distributed by Itar-Tass, often verbatim and with the same headlines, photos, and bylines, without permission.
- The district court granted a preliminary injunction against further copying and later entered a final judgment for plaintiffs after a bench trial, awarding damages and broad injunctive relief.
- Defendants appealed, raising questions about choice of law in international copyright disputes and the allocation of rights in newspaper articles under Russian law.

## Issues

1. In an international copyright dispute, which law governs (a) copyright ownership and the nature of the rights and (b) infringement and remedies for acts occurring in the United States?
2. Under Russian law, who owns the copyright in the text of newspaper articles: the journalists who wrote them or the newspaper publishers?
3. What rights, if any, do newspaper publishers hold as compilers of newspaper issues, and how does that affect standing and available relief?

## Decision

- The Second Circuit held that Russian law governs ownership and the essential nature of the asserted copyrights, while U.S. law governs infringement in the United States and available remedies.
- The court concluded that Russian law vests ownership of individual newspaper-article texts in the journalists, not the newspaper publishers, because newspapers are excluded from a work-made-for-hire-type rule.
- The court ruled that publishers’ rights, if any, are limited to a compilation interest in the original selection and arrangement of content and do not support damages for copying the text of individual articles.
- The judgment was affirmed in part and reversed in part: relief awarded to newspaper plaintiffs for copying article texts was reversed, and the case was remanded to determine appropriate relief for Itar-Tass and any other plaintiffs with valid ownership interests or authority to sue on authors’ rights.

## Legal Principles

- Copyright ownership and the nature of the rights are determined by the law of the jurisdiction with the most significant relationship to the work and parties, commonly the country of origin for foreign works.
- Infringement occurring in the United States and the remedies for that infringement are governed by U.S. copyright law.
- Under Russian law, journalists retain exclusive rights in the texts of their newspaper articles; newspaper publishers generally do not acquire those text rights by employment alone.
- A publisher’s protectable interest may be limited to compilation-type rights in the original selection and arrangement of the issue, which are distinct from rights in individual articles’ texts.
- Relief must track proven ownership or authority to enforce rights; a plaintiff lacking ownership in the copied expression cannot recover damages for that copying.

## Conclusion

The court separated ownership from infringement for foreign works, applying Russian law to determine who held the relevant copyrights and U.S. law to evaluate domestic infringement and remedies, and it limited newspaper publishers to compilation-type interests while remanding to tailor relief to plaintiffs with enforceable rights.


Itar-Tass Russian News Agency v. Russian Kurier, Inc., 153 F.3d 82 (2d Cir. 1998)