Steinberg v. Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc.

Steinberg v. Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., 663 F. Supp. 706 (S.D.N.Y. 1987) was a federal case in which artist Saul Steinberg sued various parties involved with producing and promoting the 1984 movie Moscow on the Hudson, claiming that a promotional poster for the movie infringed his copyright in a magazine cover, View of the World from 9th Avenue, he had created for The New Yorker.

The case was heard in the Southern District of New York in front of Judge Louis L. Stanton. The defendants, including Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., RCA Corporation, and several major newspapers, denied Steinberg's allegations of copyright infringement and asserted the affirmative defenses of (1) fair use as a parody, (2) estoppel, and (3) laches. Both parties moved for summary judgment.

The court granted summary judgment to Steinberg on the issue of copyright infringement, finding that the defendants failed to prove any of their defenses.

The subject of the controversy was a drawing by Steinberg known as View of the World from 9th Avenue or A Parochial New Yorker's View of the World. The drawing, which appeared on the cover of the March 29, 1976 issue of The New Yorker, depicts four city blocks of Manhattan in great detail, with the rest of the United States and the world sketched sparsely in the background. The horizon is marked by a red line, and a thin blue wash of color at the top denotes the sky. At the top is the name of the magazine, in its characteristic font.

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