Melville B. Nimmer, Noted Copyright Authority, Dies

Melville B. Nimmer, 62, whose four-volume treatise on copyright law is considered the prototype in its field, died Saturday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center after a brief struggle with cancer.

A member of the UCLA School of Law faculty, he was an authority on copyright, entertainment law, and freedom of speech who won significant victories before both the U.S. and the California supreme courts.

In the two decades since “Nimmer on Copyright” was first published in 1963, the work has been cited in most judicial rulings involving copyright.

Honored by Journal

The National Law Journal, which recently included Nimmer in its list of the “100 Most Powerful Lawyers” in the nation, described him as “the king of copyright.”

The volumes most recently have been used in home video recorder cases.

Born in Los Angeles in 1923, Nimmer graduated from Los Angeles High School in 1941 and from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1947. At Harvard Law School, where he received his bachelor of laws degree in 1950, Nimmer had to learn copyright law by reading cases because there were no classes offered in the field.

His first job was with the legal department of Paramount Pictures, and he later opened an office in Los Angeles. At that time, Nimmer was general counsel for the Writers Guild of America and acted as chief negotiator for the guild in the five-month strike of 1960, where the right to receive residuals for the showing of theatrical films on free television was established.

Named to Faculty

During the five years it took to prepare his copyright volumes he decided to teach and was subsequently appointed to UCLA’s law faculty in 1962.

But he also continued to practice law privately while lecturing at academic institutions in various countries, including Israel and Australia, where he taught this summer.

In 1984 he published another major treatise, “Nimmer on Freedom of Speech,” in which he argued that symbolic speech should be given “full and equal status” under the First Amendment. “Recognition of such equality would mean that no one will be penalized because he is only able to or chooses to communicate in a language other than that of conventional words.”

Nimmer often said his civil liberties cases, which he handled without pay for the American Civil Liberties Union, were the most satisfying part of his career. Over the years they involved victorious appearances before the U.S. and state supreme courts on behalf of a client accused of obscenity and a homosexual teacher threatened with loss of his job.

Memorial Fund Planned

Among his other works is “Cases and Materials on Copyright and Other Aspects of Law Pertaining to Literary, Musical and Artistic Works.”

Survivors include his wife, Gloria; a daughter, Rebecca Marcus; two sons, Laurence and David, and five grandchildren.

A memorial fund in his honor will be established at the UCLA School of Law, a university spokesman said.