## Facts

- Penguin Group (USA) Inc., a trade book publisher with its principal place of business in New York City, owned copyrights in four published books.
- American Buddha, an Oregon not-for-profit with its principal place of business in Arizona, operated two online-library websites hosted on servers in Oregon and Arizona.
- Penguin alleged American Buddha posted complete digital copies of the four books on its websites, making them available free to members and the public over the internet.
- The copying and uploading allegedly occurred outside New York (in Oregon or Arizona).
- American Buddha asserted its uploading and users’ downloading were permitted under Copyright Act §§ 107 and 108 (fair use and library/archive exceptions); Penguin contested any exception.
- Penguin filed a federal infringement action in the Southern District of New York and asserted personal jurisdiction under CPLR 302(a)(3)(ii) (tortious act outside the state causing in-state injury).
- The district court dismissed for lack of personal jurisdiction, concluding the “situs of injury” was where the electronic copying occurred (Oregon/Arizona), not New York.
- The Second Circuit certified to the New York Court of Appeals the question of where “injury” occurs under CPLR 302(a)(3)(ii) for internet-based uploading of copyrighted literary works.

## Issues

1. In a copyright infringement claim based on uploading a copyrighted printed literary work to the internet, where is the “situs of injury” for CPLR 302(a)(3)(ii): the place of uploading/servers or the copyright holder’s location?
2. How should CPLR 302(a)(3)(ii)’s in-state injury requirement apply to alleged harm to intangible intellectual-property rights disseminated via the internet?

## Decision

- The New York Court of Appeals held that, in copyright infringement cases involving uploading a copyrighted printed literary work to the internet, the situs of injury under CPLR 302(a)(3)(ii) is the location of the copyright holder.
- The court therefore answered that Penguin’s alleged injury occurred in New York.
- The court did not decide whether jurisdiction ultimately existed over American Buddha; it only resolved the certified question concerning the in-state injury element.

## Legal Principles

- CPLR 302(a)(3)(ii) permits long-arm jurisdiction over a non-domiciliary who commits a tortious act outside New York causing injury within New York, if additional statutory conditions are met (including reasonable foreseeability of in-state consequences and substantial interstate/international revenue).
- For internet uploading of copyrighted printed literary works, injury to the copyright owner is injury to intangible property rights that is not meaningfully localized at the physical site of copying or server location.
- Because online uploading enables worldwide access and diffuse harm, the in-state injury for CPLR 302(a)(3)(ii) is properly treated as occurring where the copyright holder is located, where the economic and rights-based impact is centered.
- The holding is confined to the stated context (uploading copyrighted printed literary works to the internet) and does not establish a universal situs-of-injury rule for all torts or all intellectual-property disputes.

## Conclusion

The court clarified that, for New York’s long-arm statute, alleged copyright infringement based on uploading complete copies of copyrighted printed literary works to the internet causes in-state injury where the copyright holder is located, supporting the in-state injury element when the rights holder is based in New York.


Penguin Grp. (USA) Inc. v. Am. Buddha, 16 N.Y.3d 295 (N.Y. 2011)