Commercial Law

Features

The movie industry was already having a bad week with the Sony hacking and then the fallout between North Korea and Hollywood over 'The Interview.' Now Kent Walker, Google Inc. senior vice president and general counsel,'has spoke out against the Motion Picture Association of America'in a blog post on Dec. 18. He says he is 'deeply concerned' about reports the MPAA has led a secret campaign to revive failed Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) legislation. '

Features

In-house counsel for eBay Inc., Google Inc. and the National Music Publishers' Association agreed last month that the U.S. copyright system needs improvement, but they offered different views about how to approach reform.

Features

In upholding a statutory damages award against a tavern owner who failed to obtain a public performance license for music used in the venue, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit formally embraced the principle that a co-owner of a copyright may sue for infringement.

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When the European Union's highest court, the European Court of Justice, handed down a controversial landmark ruling in a matter commonly referred to as the "right to be forgotten" case, it sent ripples that impact online privacy in the United States.

Features

For the third time in as many months, Sirius XM lost a court ruling over the issue of pre-1972 sound recordings. In a decision that further upsets the status quo for the music and copyright worlds, a federal judge in New York ruled that the owners of pre-1972 sound recordings have performance rights to their records, and that Sirius XM therefore infringed copyrights.

Features

When a client seeks representation on an equity joint venture, there are eight primary structural considerations that provide the framework for documenting the venture: 1) initial capital contributions; 2) future capital needs; 3) cash distribution waterfall; 4) governance; 5) transfers; 6) exit rights; 7) restrictive covenants; and 8) affiliate transactions.

Features

Data breaches at Target, Home Depot, Neiman Marcus and P.F. Chang's are front-page reminders of the vulnerability of customer payment information in the retail sector. In <i>Wyndham Worldwide</i>, the FTC brought suit claiming that a franchisor's alleged failures to maintain reasonable security measures constituted unfair and deceptive practices under Section 5 of the FTC Act.

Features

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit recently reaffirmed the long-established rule that an over-secured lender's legal and other fees are subject to court approval as reasonable under section 506(b) of the Bankruptcy Code.