individual statements, both courts were silent on whether there was a copyright in interviewee’s the interview as a whole; neither addressed how the entire interview can be copyrighted, or who holds that copyright. B. Theories of Copyright Ownership of Interviews While district courts are conflicted regarding the copyrightability of individual statements made during interviews, there are several rulings that deal with the overall ownership of the interview. 1. Split Copyright In the court held that the ownership of an interview is split Suid v. Newsweek Magazine, between the two parties. The plaintiff, Lawrence H. Suid, published a book in June 1978 entitled & Glory Great American War In July 1979, Newsweek Magazine published an “Guts – Movies.” article about John Wayne that used passages appearing in book, including quotes taken Suid’s from interviews that he had conducted with film director William Wellman. The court rejected the claim of copyright infringement, stating that plaintiff’s “[t]he author of a factual work may not, without an assignment of copyright, claim copyright in statements made by others and reported in the work because the author may not claim originality as to those Furthermore, while Suid had obtained a release from Wellman for his statements.” publication of the interview, the court determined that it did not serve as an assignment of copyright. Although the plaintiff had conducted the interview, he could not claim a copyright interest in it because the relevant quotation had been spoken by the interviewee. By refusing to give an interviewer a copyright ownership in the statements without receiving an interviewee’s explicit assignment of copyright from the interviewee, the court indirectly stated that the interviewee must possess that copyright ownership, in order to be able to assign it to the plaintiff.
interviewee’s individual statements, both courts were silent on whether there was a copyright in the interview as a whole; neither addressed how the entire interview can be copyrighted, or who holds that copyright. B. Theories of Copyright Ownership of Interviews While district courts are conflicted regarding the copyrightability of individual statements made during interviews, there are several rulings that deal with the overall ownership of the interview. 1. Split Copyright In Suid v. Newsweek Magazine, the court held that the ownership of an interview is split between the two parties. The plaintiff, Lawrence H. Suid, published a book in June 1978 entitled “Guts & Glory – Great American War Movies.” In July 1979, Newsweek Magazine published an article about John Wayne that used passages appearing in Suid’s book, including quotes taken from interviews that he had conducted with film director William Wellman. The court rejected the plaintiff’s claim of copyright infringement, stating that “[t]he author of a factual work may not, without an assignment of copyright, claim copyright in statements made by others and reported in the work because the author may not claim originality as to those statements.” Furthermore, while Suid had obtained a release from Wellman for his publication of the interview, the court determined that it did not serve as an assignment of copyright. Although the plaintiff had conducted the interview, he could not claim a copyright interest in it because the relevant quotation had been spoken by the interviewee. By refusing to give an interviewer a copyright ownership in the interviewee’s statements without receiving an explicit assignment of copyright from the interviewee, the court indirectly stated that the interviewee must possess that copyright ownership, in order to be able to assign it to the plaintiff.