Arguments in BT's Summary Judgment Motion

On November 3, the motion for summary judgment on behalf of Brian Transeau (BT) was argued before Hon. William H. Pauley, federal district court judge for the Southern District of New York.

Plaintiffs conceded BT had no access to the copyrighted work that they allege he copied. They therefore attempted to prove that BT’s work in “Aparthenonia” was so "strikingly similar" to plaintiffs’ work as to preclude the possibility of independent creation.

Plaintiffs produced no evidence suggesting that BT could not--or did not-- independently create “Aparthenonia” on his computer. The Court nevertheless asked him to recreate the piece from scratch in order to demonstrate that he could, in fact, create it independently, without reference to plaintiffs’ work.