## Facts

- Los Angeles News Service (LANS) operated as an independent newsgathering organization that sold and licensed news footage.
- During the April 29, 1992 Los Angeles riots, a LANS helicopter filmed the beating of truck driver Reginald Denny at Florence and Normandie.
- LANS copyrighted the videotape and licensed it to multiple outlets; several stations broadcast the footage before defendant KCAL-TV did.
- KCAL requested a license from LANS, but LANS refused.
- KCAL obtained a copy of the tape from another station and repeatedly broadcast portions of it on commercially sponsored news programs starting April 30.
- KCAL used roughly 30 seconds of the more-than-four-minute tape, focusing on the most dramatic segment.
- LANS sued KCAL for copyright infringement based on the unlicensed telecasts.

## Issues

1. Whether KCAL’s repeated, unlicensed broadcasts of LANS’s copyrighted riot footage constituted fair use under 17 U.S.C. § 107.
2. Whether KCAL was entitled to summary judgment on fair use given the mixed law-and-fact character of the doctrine and the record on market harm.

## Decision

- The Ninth Circuit reversed the district court’s grant of summary judgment for KCAL and remanded for further proceedings.
- The court held that, viewing the § 107 factors on this record, KCAL was not entitled to a fair-use ruling as a matter of law.
- The court found KCAL’s use commercial and largely non-transformative, notwithstanding that it occurred in a news context.
- The court concluded KCAL took the “heart” of the work despite using a short excerpt.
- The court treated potential and actual harm to LANS’s licensing market as strongly weighing against fair use.

## Legal Principles

- Fair use under 17 U.S.C. § 107 is assessed by balancing four factors: purpose and character, nature of the work, amount and substantiality, and market effect.
- Fair use is a mixed question of law and fact; summary judgment is appropriate only when only one conclusion is reasonable on the record.
- A use may be commercial even when presented as news reporting, and commerciality weighs against fair use.
- Newsworthiness or public interest in the subject matter does not, by itself, justify unauthorized copying.
- Taking a quantitatively small portion can weigh against fair use if it captures the qualitative “heart” of the work.
- Market effect analysis includes likely harm to licensing and other potential markets if the challenged practice were widespread; impairment of a copyright holder’s licensing model can defeat fair use.

## Conclusion

The Ninth Circuit held that a commercial broadcaster could not secure summary judgment on fair use for repeated, unlicensed rebroadcasts of copyrighted news footage where the station used the work’s most valuable segment and the record supported actual and potential harm to the copyright owner’s licensing market.


Los Angeles News Serv. v. KCAL-TV Channel 9, 108 F.3d 1119 (9th Cir. 1997), cert. denied, 522 U.S. 823 (1997)