This case involves a dispute regarding the copyrights in translated religious texts. In the 70s / 80s the plaintiff translated a number of Eastern Orthodox texts from the original Greek into English. [Although Judge Stearns notes that the works were registered with the PTO he likely meant the Copyright Office.] Several years ago the parties were involved in another copyright case in the E.D. Mich. regarding a different work. That case settled. Here the defendant is accused of breaching that settlement agreement as well as infringing the plaintiff’s copyrights in a number of other works.
On summary judgment the court found that the defendant had breached the settlement agreement by posting sections of the earlier disputed work on his website without permission; the defendant’s attempt to void the settlement was denied. The plaintiff also prevailed on the copyright infringement claim. The defendant’s fair use defense failed, as did its attempt to skirt the infringement charge by claiming that the works were instead owned by the non-party Russian Orthodox Church (an argument based on unauthenticated church documents rather than written copyright transfers).
Society of the Holy Transfiguration Monastery, Inc. v. Archbishop Gregory of
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