Copyright interim relief requires pleaded factual foundation before a statutory licence or version-recording defence can support injunction

Interlocutory copyright relief cannot be sustained on a disputed statutory-defence theory unless the pleadings set out the factual foundation needed to bring the case within the asserted licence or outside infringement. The Court found that the claimed statutory licensing defence and version-recording argument were unsupported by proper foundational averments, making it unsafe to maintain temporary injunction on that basis. The interim injunction was therefore vacated, while the parties were left free to amend their pleadings and seek fresh interim relief in the transferred and consolidated trial.

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Issues: Whether a temporary injunction could be sustained on the pleaded case in the absence of a proper factual foundation to support the claimed statutory licence and version-recording defence under the Copyright Act.

Analysis: The dispute turned on the claimed applicability of the statutory licensing defence for making sound recordings and on the contention that a fresh version recording using different performers would not infringe copyright. The pleadings, however, did not set out the factual basis necessary to test those propositions. In the absence of foundational averments showing how the statutory requirements were met and how the case fell outside infringement, it was unsafe to grant or maintain interlocutory relief on the assumption that those issues were established.

Conclusion: The temporary injunction was not justified on the pleadings and was set aside.

Final Conclusion: The appeal succeeded to the extent that the interim injunction was vacated, while the parties were left free to amend their pleadings and seek appropriate interim orders in the transferred and consolidated trial.

Ratio Decidendi: Interlocutory copyright relief cannot be sustained on a disputed statutory-defence theory unless the pleadings contain the factual foundation required to bring the case within the asserted defence or outside the scope of infringement.

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