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County court of Frankfurt a Main according to protocol
Reference: 2-3-O 9/99
issued May 14th, 1999 by Felden, court employee and handling certified papers in court office
Sentence in the name of the people!
Anonyme Alkoholiker Interessengemeinschaft Inc. [Anonymous Alcoholics [sic] Society of lobbyists, Inc.
represented by members of the Board of Directors Bodo Dombrowski, Joachim Zweiboehmer und Hans Prussky, Lotte-Branz-Str. 14, 80939 Munich, [Germany]
against
1) Mr. M....
(Power of attorney: Lawyer Dr. Binder, Kaiserstraße 66, 60329 Frankfurt)
because of copyrights
the 3rd Civil Chamber of County court Frankfurt Main
represented by Judge Schulze, chairman
Judge Schwichtenberg and
Judge Dr. Meckel
according to the trial held March 18th, 1999 found:
The law suit [accusation] is rejected.
This court sentence can be immediately executed [by the defendants] if they deposit the amount of 10. 000,-- DM [editors note: around US$5.000, without such deposit the sentence is put in force four weeks after receipt of a certified copy of this sentence by the plaintiff, i.e. it became effective and executable June 28th, 1999]
2-3 0 9/ 99 page -2-
Facts [as the court sees it]
The plaintiff is an registered membership Incorporation. Its purpose [as laid down in its bylaws] is
-- to support public health care
-- to support people in need, especially alcoholics
-- to fight abuse of alcohol
He [the plaintiff] is a licensee of Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. (in the following abbreviated as: AAWS), a registered membership corporation under the laws of the state New York.
Subject of the license agreement is the German edition of the work "Alcoholics Anonymous". The plaintiff complains among other things that defendant 1) would violate copyrights on this German edition. Another law suit which is handled by this Court Chamber deals with this subject under reference number 2-3 O 478/97. In this law suit here the plaintiff claims he can request that [publication and distribution of certain] English and other foreign language editions must be discontinued.
Those editions are not subject of the license agreement of [the plaintiff and] AAWS. There is but one licensee for each country or language region, to whom exclusive rights for publication and distribution of the work "Alcoholics Anonymous" are licensed. AAWS President, Greg Muth, empowered the plaintiff with his letter of January 21, 1999, to prosecute violations of copyrights regarding the English original and other foreign language editions of the book "Alcoholics Anonymous".
Defendant 1) is a long-time AA member. But he is no member of the plaintiff and no member of AAWS. He is member of a self help group who calls itself "Big Book Study Group" or "BBSG". Defendant 1) distributes a book called "The Little Big Book". This book contains pages 1 through 164 of the printed work "Alcoholics Anonymous".
Moreover he distributes several foreign language editions of this book in Finnish, Swedish, Hebrew and Russian or , according to the allegations of the plaintiff, he at least plans to distribute them in the future. Defendant 1) is owner of "12 & 12 Publishing" and gave purchase orders for the books in dispute to the book manufacturer Elsner Druck GmbH in Berlin. Defendant 2) took over
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the entire mail order business (not the publishing house) from Defendant 1) in February 1998. He answers the phone in the office of Defendant 1) on a regular basis.
Moreover he offers some of the books in dispute through his mail order business. See invoice of June 15, 1998 (Attachment K 23, pg. 160) [editors note: i.e. book published by Intergroup World Service, Inc., Croton Falls, NY, USA]
The plaintiff claims to have own legal interest, but at least a business interest for prosecution of the copyrights in dispute here. He says he was entitled to prosecute and file the law suit, because he wants to avoid that the defendants bypass a court sentences in favor of the plaintiff regarding the German edition. He suspects the defendants would bypass such court sentence by distribution of foreign language editions on the German market. Moreover the plaintiff says the text version [of the foreign language editions] was different from the editions distributed by AAWS. He goes on to claim that he, the plaintiff, had a vital interest to have the most important book of Alcoholics Anonymous distributed in one unique version only. He says AAWS was the owner of exclusive rights of the books in dispute. The publisher of the 1st edition, Works Publishing Company, was a predecessor of AAWS. Author of the text in dispute was Bill Wilson. Because the "Foreword to the German Edition" says Bill Wilson was the author Article 10/2 of the German Copyright Act would apply and one must accept that he really is. Wilson has made several license agreements with AAWS and their predecessors.
The plaintiff requests,
I. Defendant 1) for every single case of [further] infringement shall pay a fine of DM 5 up to half a million German Marks [currently about US$ 286,000.00 at an exchange rate of 1.75], and if he cannot or will not pay he shall stay in prison up to six month.
1. It shall be forbidden for him to re-duplicate and/or to give away the book "The Little Big Book", ISBN 0-9663282-1-3 [AA mini edition of the big book Alcoholics Anonymous 1939, published by BBSG in Washingtonville, USA] specified in attachment K1.
2. It shall be forbidden for him to give away the book "Alcoholics Anonymous", ISBN 0-9637666-0-0, [AA mini edition of the big book, published by Intergroup World Service, Inc., Croton Falls, NY, USA] specified in attachment K2 as far as the first 164 pages [the 11 chapters] of this text are contained therein.
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3. It shall be forbidden for him to give away the book "Alcoholics Anonymous, Study Edition", ISBN 0-9637666-1-9, [AA study edition of the big book, published by Intergroup World Service, Inc., Croton Falls, NY, USA] (attachment K 3), as far as the first 164 pages [the 11 chapters] of this text are contained therein.
4. It shall be forbidden for him to give away the book "Alcoholics Anonymous",
Reprint of the First Edition of 1939, published by Big Book Fellowship, Canton Ohio, (for copies of some pages thereof refer to attachment K 4) as far as the first 172 pages [the 11 chapters] of this text are contained therein.
5. It shall be forbidden for him to re-duplicate and/or to give away the book "Alcoholics Anonymous", as specified in I 1. above, in foreign languages, especially editions in
- Finish
- Swedish
- Hebrew
- Russian
as specified by photocopies of attachments K 5 through K 8
II . Defendant 1) for every single case of [further] infringement shall pay a fine of DM 5 up to half a million German Marks [currently about US$ 286,000.00 at an exchange rate of 1.75], and if he cannot or will not pay he shall stay in prison up to six month.
1. It shall be forbidden for him to offer and/or to distribute the book "Alcoholics Anonymous", ISBN 0-9637666-0-0, [AA mini edition of the big book, published by Intergroup World Service, Inc., Croton Falls, NY, USA] specified in attachment K2 as far as the first 164 pages [the 11 chapters] of this text are contained therein.
2. It shall be forbidden for him to offer and/or to distribute the book "Alcoholics Anonymous, Study Edition", ISBN 0-9637666-1-9, [AA study edition of the big book, published by Intergroup World Service, Inc., Croton Falls, NY, USA] (attachment K 3), as far as the first 164 pages [the 11 chapters] of this text are contained therein.
3. It shall be forbidden for him to [let others] insert advertisements into his sales catalogue which suggest that one should buy the book "The Little Big Book", ISBN 0-9663282-1-3 [AA mini edition of the big book Alcoholics Anonymous 1939, published by BBSG in Washingtonville, USA] specified in attachment K1 and the German version of this book "Das Blaue Buch" [AA mini edition of the big book Alcoholics Anonymous 1938, published by BBSG in Bad Homburg, Germany] specified in attachment K9.
III. It is requested that defendants [both 1) and 2)] must pay
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all and any damage to AAWS Inc. that was caused or will be caused in the future by the defendants according to requests I and II.
IV. Defendant 1) is requested to reveal to the plaintiff
1. where the books specified by attachments K1 through K8 came from, how he acquired ownership, what are the names and complete addresses of all people who owned those books before him, who produced, who sold and shipped them. He shall do so separately for each of the 8 titles.
2. how many books as specified by attachments 1 through 8 were distributed and how much money he received for them. He shall do so separately for each of the 8 titles and list the moneys received for each quarter of the years.
V. Defendant 2) is requested to reveal to the plaintiff
1. where the books specified by attachments K2 through K3 came from, how he acquired ownership, what are the names and complete addresses of all people who owned those books before him, who produced, who sold and shipped them. He shall do so separately for each of the 2 titles.
2. how many books as specified by attachments 2 and 3 were distributed and how much money he received for them. He shall do so separately for each of the 2 titles and list the moneys received for each quarter of the years.
VI. The defendants must give all books as specified by attachments 1 through 8 which are still in their possession to the court's marshal, in order to destroy them entirely.
The defendants request the law suit be rejected.
The defendants claim Joe Worth and not Bill Wilson had written the big book; only Bill's own life story was used for the big book. [editors note: In fact the defendants did not say so; the judge misunderstood. They said the book was written by some of the first 100 AA members. Bill Wilson was among them rather as an promoter and umpire than an author. The drafts of book chapters including his life story, as authored by Bill and dictated to Ruth Hock (manuscript 1938, now located in Stepping Stones) was of bad quality and could not be used as is. This was reported to The Alcoholic Foundation by Frank Amos in a letter of January 1939. Thus Bill's story was entirely re-written by Joe Worth and again edited by Tom Uzzell]
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The defendants say the plaintiff was not legally entitled to file law suits in these matters, because the license agreement with AAWS is limited to a German edition of the book. Moreover the defendants say Article 10/2 of German copyright Laws was not applicable because it says nowhere in the books Bill Wilson was the author. The plaintiff cannot use the copyright notice [in AAWS books] to prove his position, because the works were published in the US and there the book is public domain. Additionally, the big book never ever had any copyright protection in the U.S., because 400 pre-publications were sold or otherwise publicly distributed without appropriate copyright notice. [editor's note: Affixation of the notice to publicly distributed copies was a condition to copyright protection under the 1909 Copyright Act and also under the 1976 Copyright Act prior to march 1, 1989 when the amendments became effective to conform to the Berne Convention. As a general rule, copyright protection was forfeited if the notice was not affixed on every single copy. Section 10 of the 1909 Copyright Act provided that "[a]ny person entitled thereto by this title may secure copyright for his work by publication thereof with the notice of copyright required by this title; and such notice SHALL be affixed to each copy thereof published or offered for sale in the United states by authority of the copyright proprietor, ..."]
The defendants add, the plaintiff could not make evident that they were the persons to blame.
Reasons for the decision
AAWS has written a letter of empowerment for the plaintiff, to prosecute violations of copyrights regarding the English original and foreign language editions. But it is already questionable if AAWS can give such empowerment regarding non-English editions and if such empowerment would be legally valid. because the plaintiff said AAWS had granted exclusive licenses for all foreign language editions of the big book. But this does not matter here and need not be further verified, because no way had the plaintiff any own legal foundation to stand on and request adherence to alleged copyrights of another entity [AAWS]. According to sentences issued by the German Supreme court it is only possible for a third party [i.e. plaintiff, German AA Inc.] be empowered by the owner of rights to file law suits in his own name, if he as an own legal ground and interest worth of protection to stand on and request something be discontinued [here: distribution of big books]. References: (BGH GRUR 1990,361 -Kronenthaler; GRUR 1982, 379, 381 - Geldmafiosi; GRUR 1978, 364, 366 -Golfrasemnaeher).
A mere financial interest is insufficient for legal protection in the world of business, although financial interest can strengthen a reasoning for the existence of an own legal interest. (BGH a.a.O. -
2-3 0 9/ 99 -7-
Kronenthaler; Golfrasenmaeher). However, the plaintiff has merely obtained rights regarding a German edition of the book from AAWS. His argument, the defendants could bypass a sentence in favor of the plaintiff in the law suit regarding this German edition by distribution of foreign language editions in Germany does not convince the court. The plaintiff has no rights regarding such foreign language editions. Given such unauthorized editions were really distributed in Germany and this would really constitute damage to the legal and business interests of AAWS or other licensees of AAWS, this still does not do any harm to the plaintiff, not even indirect harm.
The plaintiff is neither legally affiliated with AAWS Inc. nor with any other group of Alcoholics Anonymous. Those are entirely autonomous organizations who are not affiliated, they are not even doing business with each other, at least the plaintiff has not claimed such business-like connections exist.
The plaintiff referred to the Kronenthaler-sentence as issued by the German Supreme court. But facts are different here. Also the plaintiff failed to show that distribution of foreign language big books were or could be in competition to the German edition he has a license for. He also failed to show that distribution of these books would create losses and make him financially suffer.
Further argument was brought forth by the plaintiff, he was part of the worldwide organization of AA, and he was thus not only entitled, but obliged to do everything in order to keep protection of intellectual property on AA literature in force and help avoid editions which stray from the original text and thereby threaten the mental unity of Alcoholics Anonymous. Also this argument does not convince the court.
According to a flyer issued by Alcoholics Anonymous [i.e.the so-called "AA fact file"] (Attachment B 6, Bl. 267 d.A.) currently 90,000 AA groups exist in 144 countries with a total membership of over 2 million people. Those groups are not subdivisions and are neither obliged to conform to world headquarters' organization, as it would be the case with a worldwide organized trust or enterprise [editor's note: for example Standard Oil, Microsoft ... whatever], nor are they legally linked together with each other [editor's note: by means of legal contracts, capital ownership, business or trade relations].
2-3 0 9/99 -8-
The plaintiff may have and interest on the ideological realm to forbid and discontinue distribution of AA literature by persons who were not authorized to do so by AAWS. However, the legal position of the plaintiff remains untouched by this. Moreover, the plaintiff has no right to claim the requested prohibitions, not even if some of his members become "confused" [by different editions].
The other decisions [regarding court cost] are being made according to §§ 91 Abs.l, 709 Section 1 ZPO.
Schulze Schwichtenberg Dr. Meckel
(stamped)
Frankfurt/Main, June 1st, 1999
signed by "Wolf"
court officer
County Court Frankfurt/Main
Ref No. 2/3 O 478/97
Sentence in the name of the people!
Anonymous Alcoholics [sic] Society of lobbyists, Inc.
represented by board members Bodo Dombrowski, Joachim Zweiböhmer and Hans Prußky, Lotte-Branz-Str. 14, 80939 Munich [Germany]
against
Mr. M......
represented by
Judge Schulze
Judge Meckel
Judge Schwichtenberg
has considered the trial of March 18th, 1999 and issued the following sentence:
The accused is required to give full information to the plaintiff where those books and newsletters as specified in I 1. through 3. came from and where they went. He shall give full names and address of any producers, carriers and others who owned the newsletters before him. He shall reveal the number of newsletters he has received.
III.
The accused is required to give full information about the large scale distribution of the newsletters in its entirety according to claims I. 1 through I. 3 of the accusation. He shall provide a separate listing for each title giving the number of distributed newsletters every 3 months.
IV.
The accused is required to give all copies of books or newsletters as specified in I. 1 through I.3 which are still in his possession to the court's marshal, in order to destroy them entirely.
V.
The accused shall pay all costs of this law suit. [including court costs and the cost for the attorneys of the plaintiff]
VI. The sentence is temporally executable ... [Without delay the AA literature shall be destroyed and the money be paid immediately, even if the accused brings an appeal or reason against that ...]
Record of considered facts
On the backside of the third sheet in the book "Anonyme Alkoholiker" is printed:
AAWS published the printed works "Too Young" and "It Happened to Alice" in the US (See attachment K10 and K11 of the charge).
The defendant has been an AA [member] for many, many years. Together with one other individual he is -according to the claims of the plaintiff- a contact person for one of the 2.500 self help groups in the German speaking region [of Europe, including Germany, Austria and parts of Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands and Liechtenstein as well]. His self help group calls itself "Big Book Study Group" [BBSG]. He says he is an informal member of this group. Despite that the defendant is not a member of the plaintiff [German AA Inc.]. He distributes a book with the title "Das Blaue Buch" [the blue book] specified in attachment K1 of the charge. In this book are the pages 1through 192 of the book " Anonyme Alkoholiker" almost completely reprinted [plagiarism]. The BBSG publishes and distributes the printed works specified in I 2 and 3. In issue 11/95 of the newsletter "A-A-ktuell" is "Bill's Story" printed on pages 2through 33. The newsletter has four columns. First column contains an English version, columns 2 through 4 contain German versions of "Bill's Story" by different translators. To see what the whole newsletter looks like refer to page 43 of the attachments [K2].
Moreover BBSG publishes issue 7/96 of the newsletter "A-A-ktuell". Therein are two comic strip stories reprinted, entitled "Zu jung?" [Too young] and "Was mit Anja geschah" [It happened to Alice]. For details of the [two] newsletters refer to attachments K2 and K3 of the charge.
The defendant who -along with other business- runs a publishing house, offered the book according to attachment K1 in his catalogue of May 1997 (see attachment K15). Moreover he distributed copies of the book on a [AA] convention in Bremen May 1996. This also happened in May 1997 during a convention in Bad Herrenalb. He used equipment of his publishing house to have the book printed by Elsner-Druck Inc. in Berlin. The defendant also published the newsletter according to attachment K2 and sent a copy of newsletter K3 to the plaintiff July 1996.
The plaintiff claims Bill Wilson alone had written the text in dispute (on pages 1-192) including the stories of many other persons. He [the plaintiff] claimed this was true for the original manuscript according to attachment K9 [multilith] and for the first printed edition as well, which was revised and published in book form 1939 acording to attachments K6 and K7.
Wilson himself -the plaintiff claims- had repeatedly described the developement of the book, and he had described it by word of mouth and in written form as well until he died. If one reads the book one could easily observe, that it was written by a single individual and was not written by a group of different authors. All legal documents concerning the book show Bill Wilson as sole author. He has registered the first edition 1939 under his own name at the Copyright Office in Washington. The book has been registered under file 128036 (see attachment K27).
The plaintiff further claims, Wilson had assigned and transferred all rights, title and interest of his report [sic] "Alcoholics Anonymous" and of his copyright registration to Works Publishing Inc. on June20, 1940 (see attachment K28 of the charge). Successor of Works Publishing Inc. became AAWS (attachment K31, K32). With this successor [AAWS] Wilson had, as a precaution, again signed a license agreement (attachment K29). AAWS then had him -the plaintiff- granted the exclusive right for publishing and distribution of the book many years ago. The plaintiff then had given order to translate the original text into German language, he acquired approval for the translation from AAWS and then distributed it in the German speaking area [in Europe]. Allegedly the book is distributed by the plaintiff for more than 20 years. On August26, 1996 a license agreement had been made between AAWS and the plaintiff (see attachment K13). The plaintiff further says the German translation of the book specified in attachment K4 had been made by different translators (see list of names on pg 270, 271 of attachments) and those people had assigned their copyrights entirely and exclusively without regional or timely limitation to the plaintiff.
The essential contents of the newsletter K2 -says the plaintiff- was "Bill's Story". The German text in the right column was a translation by Heinz Kappes, the two other columns were translated by anonymous alcoholics whose names were only known by the defendant. Kappes had been directed by the plaintiff to do the translation.
AAWS granted -says the plaintiff- exclusive permission for publication and distribution of two other works in German language. And these were the comic strip stories "Too Young" and "It Happened to Alice". The authors and art workers had assigned their rights entirely and completely to AAWS.
Author of the text "Too Young" was Mrs. Edith Davis, the comics were drawn [painted] by Mr. Reno Duchy. Author of the first edition of "It Happened to Alice" in 1968 was Richard Malgram. Text and graphics were revised later on. New illustrations were created by Archie-Comics. All versions were registered for copyright. The registration certificates show AAWS as owner of the copyrights. Both comic strip stories were purchased [and paid for] by AAWS. The plaintiff had not yet explored the granted rights [in these stories, i.e. he has not published them], but says he has the intention to do so according to attachments K10 and K11.
The plaintiff requests:
The accused shall be required to give full information to the plaintiff where those books and newsletters as specified in I 1. through 3. came from and where they went. He shall give full names and address of any producers, carriers and others who owned the newsletters before him. He shall reveal the number of newsletters he has received.
III.
The accused shall be required to give full information about the large scale distribution of the newsletters in its entirety according to claims I. 1 through I. 3 of the accusation. He shall provide a separate listing for each title giving the number of distributed newsletters every 3 months.
IV.
The accused shall be required to give all copies of books or newsletters as specified in I. 1 through I.3 which are still in his possession to the court's marshal, in order to destroy them entirely.
He says the book in dispute, the blue book, describes step by step how an alcoholic could conquer his addiction to alcohol by work on his own and in fellowship with others. The most important tool for help is the "BlueBook". This should, according to the will of the members, be available at cost to anyone who desires to recover from alcoholism. It would contradict the purpose of the fellowship to monopolize the rights in the book or to make money out of it. He [the defendant] rejects [the plaintiff's allegation that] the text on pages 1 through 192 of the book "Anonyme Alkoholiker" had been authored [solely] by Bill Wilson.
Instead Bill Wilson had submitted his own story to the authors of the book and they had put it down in words. This story then had been published as chapter one. Mrs. Ruth Hock during the 1930s had collected the experiences and text drafts of a number of Aas and had put it down with the help of Bill Wilson. This text then had been submitted to about 40 members of AA in the 30s in Akron and Cleveland for revision and addition. Their texts and additions also had contributed to the work, which was published 1939 (see answer to the charge).
On June6, 1998 the defendant wrote Hank Parkhurst had written the exposé (outline] of the book. This then had been extended by a multitude of experiences and stories of other people. The editing and typing of the texts had been done by Ruth Hock. The text, which originated from this effort had then been forwarded to about 40 members of AA. The work therefore was a product of a team of authors consisting of people who's names are listed on pg. 403 and 404 of the attachments.
On January18, 1999 the defendant says, Bill Wilson was no way the author of "Alcoholics Anonymous". He had not written a single line in the "Blue Book". He had only compiled a lengthy story of his own way, and Ruth Hock had typed it. But it was found entirely improper and not apt for publication and had therefore been rejected. Only, the life story of Bill Wilson had been entirely re-written by Joe Worth and in this form been used for the Blue book. The plaintiff could therefore not claim a chain of rights originating from AAWS regarding translation and publication. The chain of rights between Wilson and AAWS had, moreover, missing segments. Additionally German law considers only such rights as transferred to be subject to the agreement. This would apply to the agreement of April29, 1963 between Wilson and AAWS, where obviously only publication and distribution of English versions within the US are handled, but not any rights for foreign language translation rights.
The defendant further denies that the translators had assigned their proprietary rights to the plaintiff. The defendant thinks the book "Alcoholics Anonymous" was never copyright protected at any time, because the first 400 pre-publications were distributed without copyright notice. In newsletter K2 there were translations different from the version for which the plaintiff claims rights. The plaintiff further denies that the plaintiff was entitled to claim copyrights for the comic stories "Too Young" and "It Happened to Alice".
Regarding other allegations of the parties [plaintiff and defendant] refer to the attachments.
The Chamber has requested deposition from witnesses and gained evidence from that according to court decision of July 9, 1998 (see attachment pages 412, 413). Regarding the results of the depositions refer to protocol of January19, 1999 (attachments page 463).
Reasons for the Court Sentence
The plaintiff has the right to make the claims because of copyright violation according to Article 97 of German Copyright Act. Due to the facts available to the court it seems sure that Bill Wilson is the author of the text "Bill's Story" and of the other texts on pages 20 through 192 in the book "Anonyme Alkoholiker" as well. It seems sure that he transferred a license for use and exploitation of these texts to the predecessor of AAWS --Works Publishing Inc.-- and that agreement exists between AAWS and the plaintiff for exclusive license regarding the texts to the plaintiff. Moreover it seems clear, that the translators have granted their rights for use and exploitation of the translation to the plaintiff.
Details:
The Chamber became convinced due to submitted documents, that Bill Wilson is the author of the text in dispute. All documents submitted by the plaintiff show Bill Wilson as sole author of the text "Alcoholics Anonymous". He registered -as evidenced by page 337 of the attachments [K27]-- the title of the book with the Copyright Office in Washington, where an affidavit was issued little later. This [copyright registration] has never been challenged so far as the court can see. Wilson then transferred the rights for use and exploitation to Works Publishing Inc. according to document on pg 339 of the attachments [K28]. Neither has this document ever been challenged by a third party -for example with the allegation not Wilson but other people were the authors of the text-- nor the other agreement of October 1, 1942 (page 566, 567 of attachments), where Wilson granted exclusive rights in the book to Works Publishing Inc.In the light of this situation the offerings of the defendant look contrary, unreasonable and without substance (see above).
As far as the defendant says a number of authors had written the texts, he leaves the question unanswered which author is related to which text. He also did not explain -granted his assertions were right- why those other authors never challenged the self-appointed habits of Wilson regarding the copyright registration and the transfer of the exploitation rights to Works Publishing Inc. and AAWS. This is much more amazing , because Wilson received salaries for his work from AAWS later on (see Paragraph 6 of the agreement of April29, 1963). It is further unreasonable that the authorship of Bill Wilson was neither in the US nor in Germany doubtfully challenged -not even by the defendant- until 1997, when the law suit started. The written notarised deposition of Mrs. Sue Smith Windows makes no difference in that matter. The court held it was not necessary to hear her or the other witnesses of the defendant Dr. Ernest Kurtz and Mitchell Klein, because the documents were clear and the comments from the defendant lacked substance.
Moreover the book "Anonyme Alkoholiker" contains a copyright notice in favour of AAWS. Due to Article 10 (2) of the German copyright act it is supposed that [instead of the author] AAWS is entitled to execute the rights of the author Wilson, because no author is named in the book. (refer to Article 15 (3) of the Berne Copyright Convention, Paris version).
The assertion of the defendant that the book "Alcoholics Anonymous" had no copyright protection in the US at any time since 400 prepublications had been published without copyright notice is not apt to contradict the assumption in favour of AAWS. The defendant failed to explain why the alleged pre-publication of 400 copies could prevent a copyright protection. Explanations, which must be necessarily verified by evidence, were not rendered by the defendant. Because the copyright was registered in favor of Bill Wilson, such attempt [by the defendant to provide detailed verified explanation] would have been necessary.
Sufficient evidence was produced by the plaintiff by submitting documents (Assignment of June20, 1949 [K28] and agreement of 1942 [this refers to attachment K31 in the parallel law suit]), that Wilson has transferred the rights legally applicable to him to Works Publishing Inc. and that AAWS Inc. is the legal successor of Works Publishing Inc. (attachments K31 and K32). Moreover, Wilson again transferred those rights again to AAWS in the agreement of 29.4.1963 (page 340 of attachments). After all it seems sure that not only the assumption due to Article 10(2) supports the AAWS ownership of rights. It seems sure that AAWS in fact holds the rights for exploitation of Bill Wilson's work.
AAWS transferred the rights for publication of a German edition of Bill Wilson's works latest on August26, 1996 (attachment K13) and that is not in dispute. It has to be assumed that this transfer of rights already took place earlier. It was not in dispute that the plaintiff had ordered translations of Wilson's works, according to the deposition of witness Schury already before 1970 by clergyman Kappes. There were no facts available or submitted, that the plaintiff did that without consent or permission from AAWS.
After evidence was produced [i.e. the witnesses of the plaintiff have been heard by the court] that the plaintiff is the owner of rights in the translation of Bill Wilson's work as printed in the book "Anonyme Alkoholiker". Although witness Tauber gave a deposition and said, that any transfer of rights to the plaintiff regarding use and exploitation of the translation which was most recently made and published was not even mentioned or discussed at that time. However, the team of translators took it for granted, that the rights should be available for the good of the Fellowship of AA, i.e. the plaintiff. Because the plaintiff had given order to the team to do the translation and [the plaintiff] had also paid for the production cost. The plaintiff received permission for the production and sent it to AAWS in America for approval. From these facts as deposited by witness Tauber results the conviction of the Chamber, that the plaintiff should become the owner of the rights in the translations and not an unknown and not defined number of anonymous alcoholics [sic].
The assertion of the defendant [in this particular case the defendant's attorney], that the purpose of the agreement between Wilson and AAWS had obviously been the publication and distribution of copies in the US, and not translations, has no root in the text of the agreement. A distribution of the work in the US only would not meet Wilson's intention to help alcohol-sick [sic] people by means of his work and free them from their alcohol addiction. The work is thought to be used by alcohol addicts [sic] outside the US too and has therefore eminent importance.
The circumstance, that the copyright for the works of Wilson has lapsed in the US has no influence on the fact, that the protection is still valid in Germany. Because according to the Treaty between Germany and the USA of January15, 1892 and Article 3,5 (1) of the Berne Convention for the protection of literary and artificial works of September9, 1886 in the revised version of the July24, 1971 amendment, which the US has joined March 1st, 1989, the work of an American citizen enjoys copyright protection in Germany regardless if the work is still copyrighted protected in the country of origin, the US, or not (see BGHZ 70, 268 - Buster Keaton Films, BGH Schulze, jurisprudence on copyrights 427 - Alf).
Thus if the plaintiff due to the made agreements is exclusively entitled to publish and distribute translations of the work "Alcoholics Anonymous", then such right for distribution does not apply to the defendant. Therefore he must not distribute "Das Blaue Buch" according to attachment K1 or the newsletter A-A-ktuell 11/95 attachment K2 as far as therein the work of Bill Wilson is printed. That the defendant has committed such actions results from the fact, that he had Elsner-Druck Inc. print "Das Balue Buch" for his publishing house and has offered it in his catalogue. Insofar he is obliged to refrain from that due to Article 7 of German copyright act (plaintiff's claim I 1 and 2).
The claim for omission [of distribution] of attachment K3 entitled "A-A-ktuell 7/96" is also reasonable, insofar as the comic strip stories "Zu jung" and "Was mit Anja geschah..." are reproduced. Because the deposition of witness McCarthy [AAWS publications director] has shown, that AAWS has bought the rights in these illustrated stories from the authors. The rights for distribution of both works in German language including pictures and text were transferred to the plaintiff trough agreements of August26, 1996 (see attachments page 168 front and backside, 83 front and back side). The witness has outlined during her deposition, that the pamphlet "Too young" was created by author Edith Davis and illustrator Reno Duchi. Both creators were paid by AAWS and have transferred their rights to AAWS. The correctness of this assertion is not only evidenced by the documents of February10, 1988 regarding Davis and March7, 1988 regarding Duchi (attachments page 363, 364) but also by the copyright registrations through AAWS (attachments page 365).
Regarding the comic strip story "It happened to Alice" the witness deposited Richard Malgram was the author. The illustrations were created by Archie Comics Inc. The correctness of those depositions is confirmed by documents, on one hand the declaration of Archie Comics Inc of February3, 1986 and on the other hand by the copyright registration certificates of September26, 1968 (pg 367), June3, 1985 (page 368, 369) and April2, 1986 (pg 370, 371). Doubts on the plausibility of the depositions of the witness therefore cannot apply.
That the newsletter specified in attachment K3 has taken the pictures and the text -translated into German- is not in dispute. The defendant lacks rights for use and exploitation and is therefore not entitled for distribution. At least the defendant has failed to submit the smallest indication from whom he may have received such right to publish in German language the newsletters in dispute.
The requests from the plaintiff (claims II and III) to be properly informed are righteous due to Articles 101 a German Copyright Act and Articles 242, 259 and 260 BGB. The excuse from sides of the plaintiff, that he could not yet reckon and put down in nominal figures the amount of money he will claim for damages and losses is acceptable. On the other hand, the defendant, being the violator, can easily reveal information regarding the nature and the amount of violations and its circumstances. The defendant is to blame for his actions. It is not in dispute, that prior to his violations of rights he was in contact with AAWS 1993 and 1993 because of his plans to publish a German edition of Bill Wilson's text. He was then advised, that the plaintiff holds an exclusive license for a German editions and further permissions are not granted. If that be the case, then the defendant has consciously violated the rights of use of the plaintiff.
The request to hand out left over copies (claim IV) is acceptable due to Article 98 German Copyright Act.
The other decisions resulted from Articles 91 and 709 code of civil procedure.
Given May 21st, 1999
issued by secretary of court office
signed (Petry)