Meeropol v. Nizer’s Empirical Analysis
560 F.2d 1061 · 1977
Citation profile
68 federal appellate · 8 district · 10 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 144 later decisions (2 by the Supreme Court) — most recently December 2018 · most notably Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc. v. Nation Enterprises (1985), Sony Corporation of America v. Universal City Studios Inc (1984)
68 federal appellate · 8 district · 10 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.
Relationships
Applies 17 U.S.C. § 107 (§ 101 of the Copyright Act of 1976) · 28 U.S.C. § 1338
Relies on New York Times Co. v. Sullivan · Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc. · Thornhill v. Alabama · Winters v. People of State of New York · Rosenblatt v. Baer
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 144 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Notwithstanding the provisions of section 106, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include— (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.”
14 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“predominantly for commercial exploitation”
6 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““The purpose and character of the use of the copyrighted material, the nature of the copyrighted work, and amount and substantiality of the work used, and its effect upon the potential market for the copyrighted material are factors which must be evaluated in concert. Williams & Wilkins Co. v. United States, 487 F.2d 1345, 1353 , 203 Ct.Cl. 74 (1973), aff’d by an equally divided court, 420 U.S. 376 , 95 S.Ct. 1344 , 43 L.Ed.2d 264 (1975) (per curiam). If the effect on the market by an infringing work is minimal, for example, far greater use may be privileged than where the market value of the copyrighted material is substantially decreased. Similarly, where use is made of underlying historical facts such use will be entitled to complete freedom but it is otherwise if there is verbatim copying of original, copyrighted material. ‘The fair use privilege is based on the concept of reasonableness and extensive verbatim copying or paraphrasing of material set down by another cannot satisfy that standard.’ Rosemont Enterprises, Inc. v. Random House, Inc., supra, 366 F.2d [303], 310.””
5 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.