Penguin Group (USA) Inc. v. Steinbeck

SACK, Circuit Judge:

This is an appeal from an order of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Richard Owen, Judge) granting summary judgment to the appellees Thomas Steinbeck and Blake Smyle based on the court’s conclusion that a “notice of termination” given in 2004 that purported to terminate, pursuant to the Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. § 304(c) and (d), the 1938 grant of copyright licenses by the author John Steinbeck, was valid. We consider on appeal whether an agreement entered into in 1994 between Steinbeck’s widow and the publisher terminated and…