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LJN Quarterly Update: 2024 Q2
Steve Salkin
The LJN Quarterly Update highlights some of the articles from the nine LJN Newsletters titles over the quarter. Articles include in-depth analysis and insights from lawyers and other practice area experts.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
First Circuit Defines ‘Featured Artist’ for Purpose of Right to Sound-Recording Royalties from Digital Transmissions
Stan Soocher
To the public, a band typically is defined as its performing members, not a business entity that may control the music group. But when it comes to royalty rights, are the performers or the business entity entitled to “featured artist” statutory royalties from digital transmissions of the band’s sound recordings?
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Major Labels File Lawsuits Over AI Companies’ Alleged Copying of ‘World’s Most Popular’ Recordings
Jane Wester
Major record labels including Capitol Records and Sony Music Entertainment sued two music-focused generative artificial intelligence companies, accusing them of “willful copyright infringement on an almost unimaginable scale.”
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Hope for ‘Spotify Model’ for Licensing Content for AI
Mason Lawlor
A “Spotify model” of licensing, regulation and royalties could be the answer to the recent slew of lawsuits and future litigation relating to generative artificial intelligence defined by rampant misappropriation of name, image and likeness of individuals, including high-profile celebrities.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Fresh Filings
Entertainment Law & Finance Staff
Notable recent court filings in entertainment law.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Players On the Move
Entertainment Law & Finance Staff
A look at moves among attorneys, law firms, companies and other players in entertainment law.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Bit Parts
Stan Soocher
Music Publishers’ Nashville Lawsuit Over Alleged Use of Lyrics in AI Generative Program Is Sent to California Federal Court
New York Appellate Court Affirms Dismissal of Fashion Model’s Publicity Right Claim Over Ralph Lauren Documentary
New York Federal Court Applies Written Contracts Clause to Determine Intent in Implied TV-Distribution License Dispute
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LJN Quarterly Update: 2024 Q1
LJN Editorial Staff
Highlights some of the in-depth analysis and insights from lawyers and other practice area experts from the nine LJN Newsletters titles over the first quarter of 2024.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
I Got Royalties, Babe: L.A. Federal Court Sides With Cher On Income from Sonny’s Song Interests
Stan Soocher
The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California has decided that the termination by Mary Bono of grants made by her late husband Sonny Bono under the copyright-assignment termination provision of the Copyright Act didn’t affect royalty rights under a 1978 marital settlement agreement between Sonny and ex-wife Cher.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Lawyers’ Views on Voice Dust-Up Between Scarlett Johansson and OpenAI
Isha Marathe
Actress Scarlett Johansson has threatened the generative software company OpenAI with legal action. And intellectual property lawyers have many thoughts about who might win, whether there’s even a legal claim to be made and what it all means.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Voice Actors’ Class Action Challenges AI Use of Their Voices
Jane Wester
LOVO, an artificial intelligence company focused on voice generation, has been hit with a proposed class action lawsuit, with the plaintiff voice actors arguing they have not been properly compensated for the use of their voices.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
U.S. Supreme Court Decides Copyright Damages-Lookback Issue But Not Discovery-of-Infringement Rule
Robert W. Clarida and Thomas Kjellberg
In a 6-3 majority decision, the U.S. Supreme Court has resolved a copyright question that generated conflicting results in the U.S. Courts of Appeal for years. But as a forceful dissent pointed out, the court left open a more fundamental issue that could render the entire question moot.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Fresh Filings
Entertainment Law & Finance Staff
Notable recent court filings in entertainment law.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Players On the Move
Entertainment Law & Finance Staff
A look at moves among attorneys, law firms, companies and other players in entertainment law.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
NIL Regulation: Can the NCAA Recover and Advance Its Own Fumble?
Howard Mulligan
With a view toward injecting some modicum of clarity into the volatile arena of NIL, a plethora of legislation has been enacted at the state level and proposed at the federal level.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Determining Ownership Rights of Social Media Accounts
Dyan Finguerra-DuCharme, Felicity Kohn and Abla Belhachmi
Whether in the context of artist/entertainment company, employer/employee, franchisor/franchisee or influencer/brand relationships, who owns and controls the social media accounts and associated goodwill sometimes comes into dispute. This article provides guidance on the standards courts apply in determining ownership rights over social media accounts, as well as best practices to head off such disputes before they occur.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Fresh Filings
Entertainment Law & Finance Staff
Notable recent court filings in entertainment law.
Read More ›
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Players On the Move
Entertainment Law & Finance Staff
A look at moves among attorneys, law firms, companies and other players in entertainment law.
Read More ›
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Executive Producers’ “Most Favored Nations” Clauses Could Be Applied to Walking Dead Series Producer’s Profit-Participation Settlement
Stan Soocher
Can the settlement of a lawsuit by one profit participant in a TV production be used to increase the contingent compensation provisions of other profit participants in the show?
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Entertainment Law & Finance
In-House Counsel Perspective on Negotiating Social Media Influencer Contracts
Chris O’Malley
With the FTC amping up its scrutiny in the social media influencer space, in-house counsel has an opportunity to mitigate risk and help their companies get more bang for their influencer marketing buck.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Pursuing AI Programmers and Third Parties over Alleged Rights Violations Caused by AI Software
Jonathan Bick
Because AIs are capable of causing harm but cannot be a legal entity, they are not held accountable by court action. Several current and future possibilities exist to resolve AI difficulties. Current options involve identifying indirect liability. Future options include but are not limited to changing the law to make an AI a legal person and/or changing the law to make AI programing an ultra-hazardous activity.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Fresh Filings
Entertainment Law & Finance Staff
Notable recent court filings in entertainment law.
Read More ›
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Players On the Move
Entertainment Law & Finance Staff
A look at moves among attorneys, law firms, companies and other players in entertainment law.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Bit Parts
Stan Soocher
Amazon Didn’t Exceed Scope of License to Stream Chinese Drama
California Talent Agency’s Lawsuit in Texas Won’t Be Stayed Pending Proceeding Before California Labor Commissioner
King Holmes Fires Back at Band’s Legal Malpractice Complaint
No Substantial Similarity Found Between TV Show Abbott Elementary and Plaintiff’s Teacher-Focused Treatment for Proposed TV Series
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Entertainment Law & Finance
U.S. Supreme Court Hears Arguments on Whether Copyright Plaintiffs Can Reach Back More Than Three Years for Infringement Damages
Stan Soocher
In a case of first impression, the Eleventh Circuit decided that a copyright plaintiff may recover damages that occur more than three years before a copyright lawsuit is filed.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Nugent Photo Copyright Dispute Offers Appellate Look at Post-Warhol Fair-Use Analysis
Avalon Zoppo
The Fourth Circuit ruled that a copyright infringement claim against a news site, for using a photo of musician Ted Nugent without credit, could proceed, one of the first federal appellate decisions interpreting the U.S. Supreme Court’s most recent iteration of the fair use test.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Counsel Concerns
Entertainment Law & Finance Staff
Malpractice Claims Filed Against Loeb & Loeb and Of Counsel Over King Fury 2 Film Production
King, Holmes, Paterno & Soriano Sued for Malpractice Over Representation of Sublime Band
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Fresh Filings
Entertainment Law & Finance Staff
Notable recent court filings in entertainment law.
Read More ›
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Players On the Move
Entertainment Law & Finance Staff
A look at moves among attorneys, law firms, companies and other players in entertainment law.
Read More ›
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Bit Parts
Stan Soocher
Justin Timberlake Appeals After His Anti-SLAPP Motion Fails to Stick In Documentary Deal Litigation
Texas Federal Magistrate Finds California Unfair Competition Claim Should Be Ejected from Litigation Between Talent Agencies and That Dispute Should First Be Heard by California Labor Commissioner
TV/Film Development Software Can Be Trade Secret
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Can Anti-SLAPP Motion Denials Be Immediately Appealed?
Avalon Zoppo
In a move of keen interest to the entertainment industry, the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has agreed to review whether a judge’s denial of a motion to strike a California Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation suit can be immediately appealed by the defendant who claims the case was brought solely to chill its speech.
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How New York Times’ Lawsuit Over AI Software Copying Differs From Prior Copyright Complaints
Isha Marathe
The New York Times’ copyright infringement lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft is said to be AI’s “Napster Moment.” But observers are torn about the case’s legal merits, citing differing views around how exactly AI “Large Language Models” are trained.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
All the News That’s Fit to Pinch: NYT v. OpenAI Could Be Most Troublesome of AI Copyright Cases
Jonathan Moskin and Rachel Pauley
The emerging cases by authors and copyright owners challenging various generative AI programs for using copyrighted materials are certain to create new troubles for the courts being asked to apply the fair use doctrine to this important new technology.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Fresh Filings
Entertainment Law & Finance Staff
Notable court filings in entertainment law.
Read More ›
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Players on the Move
Entertainment Law & Finance Staff
A look at moves among attorneys, law firms, companies and other players in entertainment law.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Keeping Track of Developments in Cases That Pit Creative Content Against AI Programs
Stan Soocher
2024 starts off with court decisions and procedural rulings that took shape in 2023 in lawsuits that were filed over the collision of creative content with generative AI programs. Most of the complaints allege copyright infringement and related claims prompted by the unlicensed copyright works that AI companies input into their AI programs.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
How Likely FTC’s Comments On Copyright & AI May Become Policy
Isha Marathe
The FTC said that the misuse of training data like infringing on a work’s copyright license is tantamount to unfair competition, thus implicating consumer protection with copyright policy and securing the agency’s jurisdiction in the regulatory space.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Interviews With Defense Lawyers In Authors’ AI Suit Against Meta
Ross Todd
Whether there’s a fair use right to use copyrighted texts to train learning language models (LLMs) such as LLaMA is one of the central legal questions facing companies developing generative artificial intelligence. District Judge Chhabria then knocked out a significant chunk of the plaintiffs’ initial claims — a win for Meta’s legal team. Following are interviews about the case with these defense lawyers.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Players On the Move
Entertainment Law & Finance Staff
A look at moves among attorneys, law firms, companies and other players in entertainment law.
Read More ›
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Fresh Filings
Entertainment Law & Finance Staff
Notable court filings in entertainment law.
Read More ›
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Entertainment Law & Finance Is Going Digital Only. Here’s What You Need to Know.
Steve Salkin
The final print edition of Entertainment Law & Finance will be our January issue.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Ninth Circuit Focuses On Extrinsic Test In Ruling On Choreography Copyright
Stan Soocher
Reversing and remanding, the Ninth Circuit emphasized: “The district court’s approach of reducing choreography to ‘poses’ is fundamentally at odds with the way we analyze copyright claims for other art forms, like musical compositions.”
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Entertainment Law & Finance
AI’s Growing Impact On the Gaming Industry
Katherine A. Baker, Jeffrey M. Kelly and Joshua L. Kirschner
The gaming and wagering sector has begun to cross paths with artificial intelligence technology in ways both predictable and unforeseen. As with other industries, AI technology inevitably has found its way into various components of the gaming experience. What is striking, however, is how AI is revolutionizing gaming for operators, regulators, suppliers and patrons alike.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Student Athletes Try to Form Labor Union
Jeffrey Campolongo and Scott M. Badami
Does the ability to receive remuneration for being a college athlete mean that the students are deemed employees of the university? Do employment laws apply? Are labor laws enforced? Does OSHA enter the equation? What about HIPAA concerns relating to medical conditions and injuries?
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Players On the Move
Entertainment Law & Finance Staff
A look at moves among attorneys, law firms, companies and other players in entertainment law.
Read More ›
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Fresh Filings
Entertainment Law & Finance Staff
Notable court filings in entertainment law.
Read More ›
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Grappling With Post-Term Commissions In Personal Management Contracts
Stan Soocher
A recent judicial decision in a dispute between a management company and r&b artist KEM involved in part whether discussions about extending the term of years between the parties and increasing the manager’s commission were binding, even though post-term commissions weren’t discussed.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Web of Rights In Digital Sports Memorabilia
Andrew Dana
Here’s a look at the jungle of rights, including insights from a top racetrack executive on the use of NFTs. We also lay out some practical tips for athletes, agents and attorneys on how to navigate the digital sports memorabilia landscape, including in contract negotiations and disputes.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
How Energy Drink’s “Purple Rain” Trademark Application Was Rejected
Bridget H. Labutta
Despite the fact that the trademark manual of examining procedure (TMEP) are readily available and searchable online, there are still a large number of applications that trademark examiners and judges must reject because the application does not conform to one or more conditions set forth in the Lanham Act or TMEP.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Players On the Move
Entertainment Law & Finance Staff
A look at moves among attorneys, law firms, companies and other players in entertainment law.
Read More ›