On May 19, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a 6-3 opinion in Petrella v. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Although its forthcoming opinion in Aereo v. American Broadcasting Cos. will rightly be expected to be the Supreme Court’s blockbuster copyright opinion of this term, Petrella can be considered more of a sleeper, turning on a narrow, technical issue, but with a surprising set of facts and potentially wide-ranging implications.
The case that launched a thousand boxing puns, Petrella concerns Paula Petrella, whose father, Frank Petrella, wrote a 1963 screenplay based on the life of his friend, boxer Jake LaMotta, who was ultimately the subject of Martin Scorsese’s 1980 film “Raging Bull.” After Frank Petrella died in 1981, the copyright passed to his daughter.
