Mills Music, Inc. v. Snyder’s Empirical Analysis
1985
Citation profile
97 federal appellate · 31 district · 13 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 305 later decisions (21 by the Supreme Court) — most recently May 2025 · most notably Feist Publications, Inc. v. Rural Telephone Service Co. (1991), Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc. v. Nation Enterprises (1985)
97 federal appellate · 31 district · 13 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Appellate journey
reviewedHarry Fox Agency, Inc. v. Mills Music, Inc. (from Second Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 17 U.S.C. § 101 (§ 101 of the Copyright Act of 1976) · 17 U.S.C. § 103 (§ 101 of the Copyright Act of 1976) · 17 U.S.C. § 115 (§ 101 of the Copyright Act of 1976) · 17 U.S.C. § 203 (§ 101 of the Copyright Act of 1976) · 17 U.S.C. § 304 (§ 101 of the Copyright Act of 1976)
Relies on Sony Corporation of America v. Universal City Studios Inc · Park 'N Fly, Inc. v. Dollar Park & Fly, Inc. · American Tobacco Co. v. Patterson · Securities & Exchange Commission v. Ralston Purina Co. · Copeland v. United States
Most-quoted passages
The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 305 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“a work based upon one or more preexisting works, such as a translation, musical arrangement, dramatization, fictionalization, motion picture version, sound recording, art reproduction, abridgment, condensation, or any other form in which a work may be recast, transformed, or adapted. A work consisting of editorial revisions, annotations, elaborations, or other modifications which, as a whole, represent an original work of authorship, is a “derivative work.””
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“may be effected notwithstanding any agreement to the contrary, including an agreement to make a will or to make any future grant.”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“The extension of the duration of existing copyrights to 75 years, the provision of a longer term (the author’s life plus 50 years) for new copyrights, and the concept of a termination right itself, were all obviously intended to make the rewards for the creativity of authors more substantial. More particularly, the termination right was expressly intended to relieve authors of the consequences of ill-advised and unremunera-tive grants that had been made before the author had a fair opportunity to appreciate the true value of his work product. That general purpose is plainly defined in the legislative history and, indeed, is fairly inferable from the text of § 304 itself.”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.