In Silvers v. Sony Pictures Entertainment, Inc., who has standing to sue for infringement of a copyright?

In Silvers v. Sony Pictures Entertainment, Inc., who has standing to sue for infringement of a copyright?

• A. Anyone who holds the original manuscript.
• B. The owner of an exclusive right under copyright; a bare assignment to sue is invalid.
• C. Anyone who has been assigned the accrued right to sue.
• D. The author at the time of creation.

Answer: (B)

The key idea is that standing to sue for copyright infringement comes from owning an exclusive right in the work. The exclusive rights are the rights granted by the copyright: to reproduce, prepare derivative works, distribute, perform, and display the work, among others. Only someone who owns those exclusive rights or has been validly assigned them can sue for infringement. A bare assignment to sue—simply giving someone the right to sue without transferring the actual exclusive rights themselves—does not convey ownership of the copyright or the substantive enforcement rights, so it does not provide standing. Silvers v. Sony Pictures rests on this principle: you must hold the exclusive rights, or have been validly transferred those rights, to sue. Possessing the manuscript alone isn’t proof of copyright ownership, and an author at creation may have had rights initially but needs a valid transfer to preserve standing. An assignment of only the accrued right to sue likewise falls short unless it accompanies transfer of the underlying exclusive rights.

The key idea is that standing to sue for copyright infringement comes from owning an exclusive right in the work. The exclusive rights are the rights granted by the copyright: to reproduce, prepare derivative works, distribute, perform, and display the work, among others. Only someone who owns those exclusive rights or has been validly assigned them can sue for infringement. A bare assignment to sue—simply giving someone the right to sue without transferring the actual exclusive rights themselves—does not convey ownership of the copyright or the substantive enforcement rights, so it does not provide standing. Silvers v. Sony Pictures rests on this principle: you must hold the exclusive rights, or have been validly transferred those rights, to sue. Possessing the manuscript alone isn’t proof of copyright ownership, and an author at creation may have had rights initially but needs a valid transfer to preserve standing. An assignment of only the accrued right to sue likewise falls short unless it accompanies transfer of the underlying exclusive rights.