William Curtis Conner (March 27, 1920 – July 9, 2009) was a

United States district judge The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district. Each district covers one U.S. state or a portion of a state. There is at least one feder ...

of the

United States District Court for the Southern District of New York The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (in case citations, S.D.N.Y.) is a federal trial court whose geographic jurisdiction encompasses eight counties of the State of New York. Two of these are in New York Ci ...

. His rulings during his 35 years of service covered a broad range of issues, including the

First Amendment First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

, property rights to images of the

Marx Brothers The Marx Brothers were an American family comedy act known for their anarchic humor, rapid-fire wordplay, and visual gags. They achieved success in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in 14 motion pictures. The core group consisted of brothers Chi ...

after their death, and songwriter royalties.

Education and career

Conner was born in

Wichita Falls Wichita Falls ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Wichita County, Texas, United States. It is the principal city of the Wichita Falls metropolitan statistical area, which encompasses all of Archer, Clay, and Wichita Counties. According to ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

, and attended the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...

, graduating with a

Bachelor of Business Administration A Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) is an undergraduate degree in business administration awarded by colleges and universities after completion of four years and typically 120 credits of undergraduate study in the fundamentals of busine ...

degree in 1941. He received his

Bachelor of Laws A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...

from the

University of Texas School of Law The University of Texas School of Law (Texas Law) is the Law school in the United States, law school of the University of Texas at Austin, a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas. According to Texas Law’s American Bar ...

in 1942.Conner, William Curtis

Federal Judicial Center The Federal Judicial Center is the education and research agency of the United States federal courts. It was established by in 1967, at the recommendation of the Judicial Conference of the United States. According to , the main areas of re ...

. Accessed July 20, 2009. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Conner served on a number of aircraft carriers in the

United States Navy Reserve The United States Navy Reserve (USNR), known as the United States Naval Reserve from 1915 to 2004, is the Reserve Component (RC) of the United States Navy. Members of the Navy Reserve, called reservists, are categorized as being in either the S ...

in the Pacific Theater of Operations. After his military service, he joined a

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

law firm with a focus on patent law. He was later named president of what became the

New York Intellectual Property Law Association The New York Intellectual Property Law Association, also known as NYIPLA, is a professional association composed primarily of experienced lawyers interested in intellectual property law. NYIPLA has a membership base of more than 1,500 intellectual ...

.Martin, Douglas
"William Conner, Judge Expert in Patent Law, Dies at 89"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', July 19, 2009. Accessed July 20, 2009.

Federal judicial service

Conner was nominated by President

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until Resignation of Richard Nixon, his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican ...

on November 9, 1973, to a seat on the

vacated by Judge Edmund Louis Palmieri. The nomination was made on the recommendation of

Senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or Legislative chamber, chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the Ancient Rome, ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior ...

James L. Buckley James Lane Buckley (March 9, 1923 – August 18, 2023) was an American politician, jurist, diplomat, and author. Buckley served in the United States Senate as a member of the Conservative Party of New York State, held multiple positions within ...

of New York, who felt strongly that the court needed someone who had practical experience in patent and

intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, co ...

law. Conner was confirmed by the Senate on December 13, 1973, and received his commission on December 19, 1973. He assumed senior status on March 31, 1987, and relocated his chambers to the Southern District courthouse in White Plains, New York in 1995 to be closer to his home. His service terminated on July 9, 2009, due to his death in

Bronxville Bronxville is a Administrative divisions of New York#Village, village in Westchester County, New York, Westchester County, New York (state), New York, United States, located approximately north of Midtown Manhattan. It is part of the Adminis ...

, New York.

Notable cases

Conner was known as the "ASCAP judge" for his role in administering the terms of a 1941

consent decree A consent decree is an agreement or settlement that resolves a dispute between two parties without admission of guilt (in a criminal case) or liability (in a civil case). Most often it is such a type of settlement in the United States. The ...

imposed against the

American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadc ...

as the result of an antitrust case involving claims that the organization had monopolized the licensing of popular music. Conner was assigned the case in the mid-1970s, taking over from Judge Harold R. Tyler, Jr.Blumenthal, Ralph
"A Quest for Relief (Plop, Plop! Fizz, Fizz!), Monetarily"
''

'', April 29, 1997. Accessed July 20, 2009. Among Conner's rulings in the case were his 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; the rejection in 2007 of a request to treat

music download A music download is the digital transfer of music via the Internet into a device capable of decoding and playing it, such as a personal computer, portable media player, MP3 player or smartphone. This term encompasses both legal downloads ...

s as performances; and a 2008 decision under which ASCAP would receive 2.5% of revenue from songs played online via

streaming media Streaming media refers to multimedia delivered through a Computer network, network for playback using a Media player (disambiguation), media player. Media is transferred in a ''stream'' of Network packet, packets from a Server (computing), ...

rather than the 3% it had originally sought. In a 1981 decision later reversed by the

United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (in case citations, 2d Cir.) is one of the thirteen United States Courts of Appeals. Its territory covers the states of Connecticut, New York (state), New York, and Vermont, and it has ap ...

, in a case brought by

Harpo Marx Arthur "Harpo" Marx (born Adolph Marx; November 23, 1888 – September 28, 1964) was an American comedian and harpist, and the second-oldest of the Marx Brothers. In contrast to the mainly verbal comedy of his brothers Groucho and Chico, Harp ...

's widow

Susan Fleming Susan Alva Fleming (February 19, 1908 – December 22, 2002) was an American actress and the wife of comic actor Harpo Marx and sister in law to Groucho, Chico, Zeppo and Gummo. Fleming was known as the "Girl with the Million Dollar Legs" ...

, Conner ruled that the producers of ''

A Day in Hollywood / A Night in the Ukraine ''A Day in Hollywood / A Night in the Ukraine'' is a musical comedy consisting of two essentially independent one-act plays, with a book and lyrics by Dick Vosburgh and music by Frank Lazarus. Additionally, songs by other composers are incorpora ...

'' had improperly used the

characters in their

Broadway theatre Broadway theatre,Although ''theater'' is generally the spelling for this common noun in the United States (see American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, American and British English spelling differences), many of the List of ...

production and that the

publicity rights Personality rights, sometimes referred to as the right of publicity, are rights for an individual to control the commercial use of their identity, such as name, image, likeness, or other unequivocal identifiers. They are generally considered as p ...

of the comedians, even after their deaths, overrode the First Amendment claims of the show's creators. In April 1980, Conner had refused to issue a

preliminary injunction An injunction is an equitable remedy in the form of a special court order compelling a party to do or refrain from doing certain acts. It was developed by the English courts of equity but its origins go back to Roman law and the equitable reme ...

and allowed producer Alexander H. Cohen to open the show as planned. In a May 1980 ruling, Conner decided that community organizations that placed fliers in personal mailboxes did not violate the law, holding that the organizations' First Amendment rights trumped a 1934 statute imposing a $300 fine for placing mailable material into a mailbox without postage. The 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 The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or simply the Postal Service, is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the executive branch of the federal governmen ...

contended that mailbox security would be lost and that mail carriers would have to waste time checking what's in mailboxes.Williams, Lena
"Ruling Opens Mailboxes to Fliers"
''

'', May 3, 1980. Accessed July 20, 2009. In a case filed by a bank that lost $2 million that had been placed in baggage checked on a flight, Conner ruled that

Eastern Airlines Eastern Air Lines (also colloquially known as Eastern) was a major airline in the United States that operated from 1926 to 1991. Before its dissolution, it was headquartered at Miami International Airport in an unincorporated area of Miami-Dade ...

was responsible only 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 The Convention for the Unification of certain rules relating to international carriage by air, commonly known as the Warsaw Convention, is an international convention which regulates liability for international carriage of persons, luggage, or ...

Personal

A resident of

Dobbs Ferry Dobbs Ferry is a village in Westchester County, New York, United States. The population was 10,875 according to the 2010 United States Census. In 2021, its population rose to an estimated 11,456. The village of Dobbs Ferry is located in, and is ...

, New York, Conner died at age 89 in

, New York. He was survived by his wife, a daughter, three sons and six grandchildren.

References

External links

*
The Hon. William C. Conner Inn of Court
{{DEFAULTSORT:Conner, William C. 1920 births 2009 deaths United States Navy personnel of World War II Judges of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York People from Dobbs Ferry, New York People from Wichita Falls, Texas United States district court judges appointed by Richard Nixon United States Navy reservists McCombs School of Business alumni University of Texas School of Law alumni Military personnel from New York City