White-Smith Music Publishing Co. v. Apollo Co.: A Case For Mechanical Royalties

The White-Smith Music Publishing Co. v. Apollo Co. case, decided by the US Supreme Court in 1908, was a landmark decision that had a significant impact on music copyright law.

In this case, the Court held that the player piano rolls produced by the Apollo Company, which reproduced musical compositions owned by the White-Smith Music Publishing Company, constituted a violation of the publisher’s exclusive rights to reproduce and distribute their works.

The Court’s decision established the principle that musical compositions were subject to copyright protection, and that reproducing them without permission constituted infringement. The decision also clarified that copyright protection applied not only to sheet music but also to any medium that reproduced a musical work, including player piano rolls and phonograph records and later tapes, CDs and mp3s.

As a result of the White-Smith Music Publishing Co. v. Apollo Co. case, caused the scope of copyright protection for musical compositions to broaden, and it established the foundation for the modern music copyright law. It also set a precedent for future cases involving the reproduction and distribution of copyrighted music, influencing the development of copyright law in the United States and other countries.