Page:United States Court of Appeals 06-4222.djvu/19

 It is certainly true that what Meshwerks accomplished was a peculiar kind of copying. It did not seek to recreate Toyota vehicles outright – steel, rubber, and all; instead, it sought to depict Toyota’s three-dimensional physical objects in a two-dimensional digital medium. But we hold, as many before us have already suggested, that, standing alone, "[t]he fact that a work in one medium has been copied from a work in another medium does not render it any the less a 'copy.'" Nimmer on Copyright § 8.01[B]; see also Durham Indus., Inc. v. Tomy Corp., 630 F.2d 905, 910 (2d Cir. 1980) (holding that “the mere reproduction of the Disney characters in plastic . . . does not constitute originality as this Court has defined the term”); Entm't Research Group, Inc. v. Genesis Creative Group, Inc., 122 F.3d 1211, 1221-24 (9th Cir. 1997) (denying copyright protection to 3-D costumes based on 2-D cartoon characters). After all, the putative creator who merely shifts the medium in which another’s creation is expressed has not necessarily added anything beyond the expression contained in the original. See Bridgeman Art Library, Ltd., 36 F. Supp. 2d at 199 (noting that "a copy in a new medium is copyrightable only where, as often but not always is the case, the copier makes some identifiable original contribution"). (continued...)