Fox News Network, LLC v. TVEyes, Inc. - 883 F.3d 169 (2d Cir. 2018)

Rule:

In considering the first statutory factor--the purpose and character of the secondary use, 17 U.S.C.S. § 107(1)--the primary inquiry is whether the use communicates something new and different from the original or otherwise expands its utility, that is, whether the use is transformative. To be transformative, a use must do something more than repackage or republish the original copyrighted work; it must add something new, with a further purpose or different character, altering the first with new expression, meaning or message. Although transformative use is not absolutely necessary for a finding of fair use, transformative works lie at the heart of the fair use doctrine, and a use of copyrighted material that merely repackages or republishes the original is unlikely to be deemed a fair use. 

Facts:

In this copyright infringement suit, defendant TVEyes, Inc. ("TVEyes") offers a service that enables its clients to easily locate and view segments of televised video programming that are responsive to the clients' interests. It does so by continuously recording vast quantities of television programming, compiling the recorded broadcasts into a database that is text-searchable (based primarily on the closed-captioned text copied from the broadcasts), and allowing its clients to search for and watch (up to) ten-minute video clips that mention terms of interest to the clients. Plaintiff Fox News Network, LLC ("Fox"), which has sued TVEyes in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, does not challenge the creation of the text-searchable database but alleges that TVEyes infringed Fox's copyrights by re-distributing Fox's copied audiovisual content, thereby enabling TVEyes's clients to access that content without Fox's permission.

Issue:

Is TVEyes's enabling of its clients to watch Fox's programming protected by the doctrine of fair use?

Answer:

No

Conclusion:

The court held that TVEyes's re-distribution of Fox's audiovisual content serves a transformative purpose in that it enables TVEyes's clients to isolate from the vast corpus of Fox's content the material that is responsive to their interests, and to access that material in a convenient manner. But because that re-distribution makes available virtually all of Fox's copyrighted audiovisual content--including all of the Fox content that TVEyes's clients wish to see and hear--and because it deprives Fox of revenue that properly belongs to the copyright holder, TVEyes has failed to show that the product it offers to its clients can be justified as a fair use. Accordingly, the court reversed the order of the district court to the extent it held that some of the challenged TVEyes functions constituted a fair use. The court affirmed the order to the extent that it denied TVEyes's request for additional relief. Furthermore, because the district court's issuance of an injunction was premised on the incorrect conclusion that much of what TVEyes offered was a fair use, the court remanded for the district court to revise the injunction in light of this opinion.