William C. Conner

William Curtis Conner (March 27, 1920 – July 9, 2009) was a federal judge for the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. His rulings during his 35 years of service covered a broad range of issues, including the First Amendment, property rights to images of the Marx Brothers after their death and songwriter royalties.

Early life and education

Conner was born in Wichita Falls, Texas, and attended the University of Texas at Austin, graduating with a Bachelor of Business Administration in 1941. He received his Bachelor of Laws degree from its University of Texas School of Law in 1942. During World War II, Conner served on a number of aircraft carriers in the United States Navy Reserve in the Pacific Theater of Operations. After his military service, he joined a New York City law firm with a focus on patent law. He was later named president of what became the New York Intellectual Property Law Association.

Judicial career

He was nominated to the court by President Richard M. Nixon on November 9, 1973, to fill the seat vacated by Edmund L. Palmieri, based on the recommendation of U.S. Senator James L. Buckley of New York who felt strongly that the court needed someone who had practical experience in patent law and intellectual property matters. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on December 13, 1973, and received his commission on December 19, 1973.

Conner was known as the "Ascap judge" for his role in administering the terms of a 1941 consent decree on the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers imposed as the result of an antitrust case that involved claims that the organization had monopolized licensing of popular music. Conners was assigned the Ascap case in the mid-1970s, taking over from Judge Harold R. Tyler, Jr. Among his rulings in the ongoing case was the dismissal in the early 1990s of claims that jingle writers were being shortchanged, a 2004 ruling on an agreement covering payments from radio stations for music played on air that brought royalty recipients an estimated $1.7 billion in additional payments from 2001 to 2009, a rejection in 2007 of a request to treat music downloads as performances and a 2008 decision under which Ascap would receive 2.5% of revenue from songs played online via streaming media rather than the 3% they had originally sought.

In a 1981 decision later overruled by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in a case brought by Harpo Marx's widow Susan Fleming, Conner ruled that the producers of A Day in Hollywood / A Night in the Ukraine had improperly used the Marx Brothers characters in their Broadway theatre production and that the publicity rights of the comedians, even after their deaths, overrode the First Amendment issues raised by the show's creators. In April 1980, Conner had refused to issue a preliminary injunction and allowed producer Alexander H. Cohen to open as planned.

In a May 1980 ruling, Conner decided that community organizations that placed fliers in personal mailboxes did not violate the law, stating that their First Amendment rights would mean that a 1934 statute that imposed a $300 fine for placing mailable material without postage would be overturned. The local organizations that challenged the ban claimed that the cost and delays of using the mail "barred them from effective communication", while the United States Postal Service stated that mailbox security would be lost and that mail carriers would have to waste time checking what's in mailboxes.

In a case filed by a bank that lost $2 million that had been checked on a flight, Conner ruled that Eastern Airlines was only responsible for paying $634.90 for the lost money, charged at the standard rate of $9.07 per pound for lost luggage under the terms of the Warsaw Convention.

He assumed senior status on March 31, 1987, and relocated his chambers to White Plains, New York in 1995 to be closer to his home.

Personal

A resident of Dobbs Ferry, New York, Judge Conner died at age 89 in Bronxville. He was survived by his wife, a daughter, three sons and six grandchildren.

External links

• William C. Conner at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a publication of the Federal Judicial Center.
• The Hon. William C. Conner Inn of Court