Opinion of the Court
Notice: This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the preliminary print of the United States Reports. Readers are requested to notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of the United States, Washington, D. C. 20543, of any typographical or other formal errors, in order that corrections may be made before the preliminary print goes to press.
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
No. 22–1078
WARNER CHAPPELL MUSIC, INC., ET AL., PETITIONERS v. SHERMAN NEALY, ET AL.
ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT
[May 9, 2024]
Justice Kagan delivered the opinion of the Court.
The Copyright Act’s statute of limitations provides that a copyright owner must bring an infringement claim within three years of its accrual. See 17 U. S. C. §507(b). In this case, we assume without deciding that a claim is timely under that provision if brought within three years of when the plaintiff discovered an infringement, no matter when the infringement happened. We then consider whether a claim satisfying that rule is subject to another time-based limit—this one, preventing the recovery of damages for any infringement that occurred more than three years before a lawsuit’s filing. We hold that no such limit on damages exists. The Copyright Act entitles a copyright owner to recover damages for any timely claim.
I
This dispute had its start in a decades-old, short-lived music venture. In 1983, Sherman Nealy and Tony Butler formed Music Specialist, Inc. That company recorded and released one album and several singles, including the works at issue. But the collaboration dissolved a few years later. And Nealy soon afterward went to prison for drug-related
