Underwood v. Coallier

Claiming to own exclusive copyright in the works of William Shakespeare, Julien Coallier served on YouTube a DMCA takedown notice objecting to fifty different recordings of Shakespeare plays. The notice applied to recordings of two plays that John Underwood had posted. Underwood sent YouTube counternotifications that should have caused YouTube to restore the recordings but that it did not honor. And in communications, Coallier took the position that Shakespeare’s plays were no longer in the public domain and that he was entitled to be paid a flat fee plus five percent in return for permission to show Shakespeare’s work. Representing Underwood, we contacted YouTube, which then reposted the plays in accordance with the counternotice. Underwood, however, has posted (with permission of the local theater company) many other Shakespeare performances that remain under threat from Coallier. We therefore filed a lawsuit on behalf of Underwood against Coallier, seeking a declaratory judgment of non-infringement and damages for wrongful takedown.