Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc.’s Empirical Analysis
1994
Citation profile
366 federal appellate · 127 district · 26 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,127 later decisions (8 by the Supreme Court) — most recently May 2025 · most notably eBay Inc. v. MERCEXCHANGE, LL (2006), Eldred v. Ashcroft (2003)
366 federal appellate · 127 district · 26 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
reviewedAcuff-Rose Music, Inc. v. Campbell (from Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 17 U.S.C. § 101 (§ 101 of the Copyright Act of 1976) · 17 U.S.C. § 106 (§ 101 of the Copyright Act of 1976) · 17 U.S.C. § 107 (§ 101 of the Copyright Act of 1976) · 17 U.S.C. § 502 (§ 101 of the Copyright Act of 1976)
Relies on Feist Publications, Inc. v. Rural Telephone Service Co. · Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc. v. Nation Enterprises · Sony Corporation of America v. Universal City Studios Inc · Stewart v. Abend
Cited together with Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc. v. Nation Enterprises · Sony Corporation of America v. Universal City Studios Inc · Feist Publications, Inc. v. Rural Telephone Service Co. · Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc. · Celotex Corporation v. Catrett H
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 1,127 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes; (2) the nature of the copyrighted work; (3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and (4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.”
143 later decisions quote this exact passage“adds something new, with a further purpose or different character, altering the first with new expression, meaning, or message.”
61 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“consider not only the extent of market harm caused by the particular actions of the alleged infringer, but also whether unrestricted and widespread conduct of the sort engaged in by the defendant ... would result in a substantially adverse impact on the potential market for the original.”
36 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent
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.