United States Ninth Circuit

The district court's order appointing a receiver and authorizing the sale of master sound recording copyrights in an action between defendant-musician and his former law firm, plaintiff, is affirmed, where: 1) plaintiff-law firm obtained judgments against defendant for past-due attorneys' fees, and moved for an order authorizing the sale of master recordings made by defendant to satisfy the judgments; 2) under Washington law defendant's copyrights in the masters are subject to execution to satisfy judgments made against him; 3) section 201(e) of the federal Copyright Act does not protect defendant from the involuntary transfer of his copyrighted works; 4) under Washington law the district court did not abuse its discretion by appointing a receiver to manage or sell ownership of the copyrights; 5) defendant may raise claims of fraud on the court and judicial estoppel for the first time on appeal, but both claims are meritless; and 6) plaintiff's preemption, Erie doctrine, and due process arguments are without merit.

Appellate Information

• Decided 06/23/2014
• Published 06/23/2014

Judges

• CHRISTEN

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel