The not-so-world-wide-web: establishing access through widespread dissemination

More recently, the Northern District of California rejected a screenwriter's claim of access via the internet in Briggs v. Blomkamp.'0 In Briggs, the plaintiff alleged that he posted a screenplay on the website triggerstreet.com." The plaintiff claimed that another screenwriter, Neill Blomkamp, and various film production and distribution entities must have accessed his screenplay through the website and used it as the basis for the science-fiction film Elysium.'2 The court dismissed the plaintiff's claim for copyright infringement, conclusively finding, among other things, that the allegations were "entirely speculative as they relate[d] to [the defendant's] access to the screenplay."13 While courts are abundantly clear that a plaintiff seeking to establish access must demonstrate more than the mere availability of his work on the internet, there are few instances where a plaintiff has been able to show that there was "widespread dissemination" of his or her work through the internet or other non-traditional channels. The court's decision in Rovio Entm't Ltd. v. Royal Plush Toys, Inc., which involved the dissemination of a copyrighted work via a mobile operating system is one example. In Rovio, the developer of the puzzle video game Angry Birds sued the defendants for copyright and trademark infringement, alleging that the defendants were selling knock-offs of Rovio's Angty Birds plush toys. In granting Rovio's motion for a preliminary injunction, the Northern District of California determined that Rovio was able to demonstrate access to its products by widespread dissemination. 14 Specifically, the court found that quantifiable evidence of the game's popularity and exposure to a large audience, including that it had been downloaded 1 billion times since it was first released for Apple, Inc.'s iOS mobile operating system and that the game had 40 million active monthly users, was sufficient to demonstrate widespread dissemination of the game.