Rodney Woodland v. Montero Lamar Hill
Patent Copyright JusticiabilityDoctri
Whether copyrightability is a pure question of law or includes considerations of background facts, given a Circuit split on the issue
1. Whether , on an acknowledged Circuit split, copyrightability is a pure question of law, as the Ninth Circuit held below, or includes considerations of background facts , either as a pure question of fact or as a mixed question of law and fact, as heavily implied by this Court ’s decision in Feist and expressly adopted by other Circuits citing Feist . 2. Whether copyright protection for photography is only selection and arrangement as the Ninth Circuit held in Rentmeester and extended below, or whether copyright protection for photography is assessed just as for all other works of the visual arts that Congress placed on an equal footing in 17 U.S.C. § 101 and in accordance with this Court ’s seminal decision in Burrow -Giles . ii PARTIES BELOW The