Summary Of The Federal Case 33921 Entertainment Software Association

This paper examines and summarizes the court Federal case 33921 Entertainment Software Association V. Society of Composers, Authors, and Music Publishers of Canada. By definition of court, a court does not create the laws, however, it interprets cases and rules, these elucidations are further referred to in order to reach a final decision.

The commencement of this case is between ESA and SOCAN. The fundamental matter of the case is the interpretation of whether communicating through the internet to the public gives copyright owners the same right that they would have when their products are sold in stores. The issue later rises on how the court interpreted copyright law in terms of the digital era and the court’s indulgent understanding of

The decision was appealed by the federal court of appeal, approving the copyright board’s decision, that both public performance of music and the reproduction of musical works should be seen as two different rights.

ESA has officially paid a fee to the copyright owners for the reproduction of the video games (pg. 2). While SOCAN applied for a tariff to the copyright board on behalf of the copyright owners requesting an appeal. The appeal is then approved by the Federal court of appeal and the copyright board’s decision was upheld.

ESA, in this case, is seen as the appellant who is an association of publishers and distributors of video games making copies of the video games and allowing the public to purchase them online. The original Video games that are published require a specific software to be installed in advance in order to be able to view the audio and visual effects of the game ( at para. 54), this is seen as an important piece of information in the case. However, the video games copies produced by ESA download the software immediately on customer’s disc or CD. While SOCAN, a society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers is the defendant. SOCAN claims to have the right to perform or communicate to the public “the works covered by its members’ copyrights” (at para 57). As the video games are protected by copyright musical works, SOCAN, the defendant, applied for a tariff to the copyright board for the reproduction of the video