Downloading a copyrighted digital music file does not constitute a public performance under the Copyright Act, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled.The court upheld the lower court ruling that while companies that sell digital music online must pay a royalty fee for the right to make a copy of a work, they need not separately and additionally pay a royalty for downloading the copy. The appeals court found that a digital music file is neither recited, rendered or played within the Copyright Act definition of "perform," nor does downloading "show" a work or make it audible. "The downloaded songs are not performed in any perceptible manner during the transfers; the user must take some further action to play the songs after they are downloaded," the court commented.
United States v. American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 19983 (2d Cir. Sept. 28, 2010) Download PDF
