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Entertainment Law & Finance
25 Years After: Campbell v. Acuff-Rose and the State of Copyright Fair-Use Controversies
Stan Soocher
On March 7, 1994, the U.S. Supreme Court decided for the first time that a parody may be a copyright fair use. In the 25 years that followed, the High Court’s unanimous 9-0 ruling in Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Inc., has been cited in more than 500 court decisions. But the Supreme Court’s pronouncement left questions and controversies in its wake.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Decision of Note: Race Discrimination Claims Against Charter Cable Can Proceed
Ross Todd
The Ninth Circuit decided that a group of African-American-owned television networks can pursue racial discrimination claims against Charter Communications Inc., the nation’s third-largest cable provider.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Second Circuit Affirms ‘ReDigi’: No ‘Resale’ of Digital Music Files
Robert J. Bernstein and Robert W. Clarida
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit recently issued a long-awaited ruling in Capitol Records LLC v. ReDigi Inc., affirming summary judgment in favor of Capitol Records and its record label co-plaintiffs in a case that raised issues of first impression concerning first sale and fair use in the age of digital music distribution.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Counsel Concerns: Lawyers Battle Over Gears of War Client
Lizzy McLellan
A Philadelphia lawyer is suing the founder of a fast-growing litigation boutique over a purported fee-sharing settlement, is arguing that the boutique backed out of the settlement so it could fund other cases against video game makers.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Bit Parts
Stan Soocher
California Federal Judge Refuses, Among Other Things, to Drop Fiduciary Breach Claim Against AMC Networks over Fear the Walking Dead TV Series
New York Appellate Division Decides UMG Recordings Isn’t Alter Ego of Cash Money Records
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Upcoming Event
SXSW Conference 2019 CLE Program, March 14-16
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Book Release
Music Money and Success: The Insider’s Guide to Making Money in the Music Business (8th Edition)
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Perfecting Film Financiers’ Liens in Copyrights
Bruce Goldner
The law on how to perfect a lien in a copyright application is foggy at best. This article sketches out pitfalls of the current process for perfecting a lien on a copyright application, and potential steps that a financier may take to help perfect and protect a film investment.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Decision of Note: 6th Cir. Says No ‘Magic Words’ to ‘Elect’ Copyright Statutory Damages
Stan Soocher
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit decided that §504 of the U.S. Copyright Act doesn’t require any “magic words incantation” for a copyright infringement plaintiff to choose a statutory damages award, that “[t]he word ‘elect’ does not by itself require formal procedures.”
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Entertainment Law & Finance
No Secondary Liability Seen Yet, By Band’s Reps, for Sexual Assault
A federal judge in Camden, NJ decided that a Christian rock band’s management, talent agent and lead singer weren’t vicariously liable for the sexual assault of a teenage fan committed by a member of the band.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
11th Circuit Says Anti-SLAPP Law Doesn’t Belong in Federal Court
R. Robin McDonald
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit rejected an appeal by CNN to dismiss a libel case over the cable network’s 2015 investigation of infant deaths at a Florida hospital.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
SCOTUS Hears Arguments on Copyright Registration Approvals
Scott Graham
While hearing January 2019 oral arguments before it, the U.S. Supreme Court sounded inclined to resolve a circuit courts’ split over copyright registration procedures against copyright holders.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
L.A. Sees Many Moves Among Entertainment Law Firms
Entertainment practices with well-known clients are in high demand in the Los Angeles legal market, leading to a spate of lateral hires among American Lawyer 200 firms in the latter part of 2018.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Bit Parts
Stan Soocher
Actor’s Negligence Claim over Film Set Injury Preempted by California’s Workers’ Compensation Act
Nashville Federal Court Decides Record Producer Didn’t Abandon Master Recordings of 1970s George Jones Album
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Book Releases
The Essential Guide to Entertainment Law: Intellectual Property
The Essential Guide to Entertainment Law: Dealmaking
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Making Sense of YouTube’s Monetization Policies
Gwendolyn Seale
This article delves into YouTube’s policies for channel monetization, explores the different streams of revenue an artist or creator may be entitled to receive for their works, and offer suggestions to indie creators and more established creators, so they can meet these new thresholds.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Risks in Online Collection of Children’s Data
Jeffrey Higel, Michael Bahar and Mike Nelson
As convenient, useful and cool mobile technology and interconnected devices are, they come with risks that remain largely unseen or, worse, ignored. Some pose security risks and privacy risk, like those present in voice-activated devices — especially for children. For manufacturers, they also pose regulatory litigation and insurance risks, especially when children end up using their “smart” products.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Bit Parts
Stan Soocher
Complaints to Amazon by TV Show Host and His Attorney Didn’t Constitute DMCA Notices
No Actual Malice by Defendants in Libel Suit over Composite Character in Film
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Entertainment Law & Finance
How Will the Music Modernization Act’s Mechanical Licensing Collective Work?
Chris Castle
This article focuses on managing change for clients affected by the MMA’s government-mandated mechanical licensing collective. In my view, far from putting songwriters on a trajectory away from the government regulation that has oppressed them for generations, the collective imposes an entirely new bureaucracy with potentially significant costs that are not readily apparent.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Author and Licensee Content Rights in Agreements for TV Productions
Neil J. Rosini and Michael I. Rudell
These times are heady for creators of books and stories that may be suitable for television production. In addition to the traditional broadcast networks, a legion of pay and basic cable exhibitors and, more recently, direct-to-consumer streaming outlets are voraciously licensing product from those creators. Much press is given to the compensation aspects of the creators’ agreements with exhibitors, but attention also should be paid to the extent and duration of the exhibitor’s exclusivity in the property in which rights are being acquired,
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Abandonment Defense Stays in Copyright Suit on Filesharing
Zach Needles
Malibu Media LLC is by now well-known as a frequent filer of copyright infringement lawsuits nationwide against Web users alleged to have illegally downloaded and shared the company’s adult films. But a federal judge in Pennsylvania recently said it should be up to a jury to decide whether the company is entitled to stake a claim to those copyrights in the first place.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
IP Provisions in ‘New NAFTA’ Agreement
Lawrence E. Ashery
With Canada's agreement, the stage was set for the 24-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to end and the U.S. Mexico Canada Agreement (USMCA) to take its place.Among the provisions of note for the entertainment industry, copyright will receive a boost from the USMCA.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
DMCA Filmmakers Exemption Expanded
Scott Graham
Digital Millennium Copyright Act exemptions aren’t just for documentary filmmakers anymore. The U.S. Copyright Office and Library of Congress has broadened a DMCA exemption to now allow more filmmakers to circumvent anti-copying technology and rip short video clips for purposes of commentary and criticism.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Bit Parts
Stan Soocher
Phil Everly’s Family Time-Barred From Claiming Co-Ownership of “Cathy’s Clown” Song Copyright With Brother Don
Newsworthiness and Public Interest Exceptions in Indiana’s Right-of-Publicity Statute Apply to Fantasy Sports
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Upcoming Events
Annual Entertainment, Sports & Media Law Institute
Copyright Year in Review
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Litigation over ‘Ultra Music’ Licensing Raises International Trademark Issues
Zach Schlein
A Miami, FL, federal jury ruled in favor of a Croatia-based production company in their trademark dispute with a titan of concerts, Ultra Music Festival.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Impact of EU’s GDRP on Domain Registration
Zach Warren
Since the GDPR’s implementation, the “WHOIS” service by which the general public could search registration information, including names and contact info, has been largely in a state of flux. It’s now even tougher to find information, attorneys who work with domain registration say, which could concern entertainment and intellectual property holders who want to go after infringing websites.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
COUNSEL CONCERNS: Federal Judge Scolds Both Sides’ Lawyers In Labels/Spinrilla Copyright Dispute
R. Robin McDonald
A federal judge in Atlanta called out attorneys in a nationally watched copyright case for their role in an “an all-out, knock-down, drag-out fight between the ‘800-pound Gorilla’ of the recording industry in one corner of the room vs. ‘Spinrilla’, the self-proclaimed ‘800-pound Gorilla of free hiphop mixtapes’ in the other corner.”
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Entertainment Law & Finance
New York State’s Latest Ticket Sales Reforms
Anthony J. Dreyer and Andrew Green
The majority of these recent amendments become effective on Dec. 28, 2018. Many of these reforms appear to be in direct response to concerns expressed in 2016 by the New York Attorney General (NYAG), yet the changes do not appear to be as sweeping as the NYAG had sought.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Usher Song Credit Suit Outcome; Suit Over Led Zeppelin Song Gets Retrial
Max Mitchell and Scott Graham
A man claiming to have been cheated out of credit for writing a song that was eventually recorded by R&B star Usher won a more than $40 million judgment in a combined verdict and settlement against two men he co-wrote the song with. And the copyright case against Led Zeppelin by the band Spirit over "Stairway to Heaven" will return for an encore after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit called for a retrial.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Bit Parts
Stan Soocher
Friday the 13th Screenplay Author’s Copyright Termination Notice Found Valid
Infringement Suit over Justin Timberlake’s “Damn Girl” Allowed to Proceed
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Upcoming Events
TexasBarCLE 28th Annual Entertainment Law Institute
Annual Entertainment, Sports & Media Law Institute
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Entertainment Law & Finance
How Entertainment and Media Brand Owners Can Prepare for Brexit Scenarios
William Stroever
Following the “Brexit” vote by the United Kingdom signaling its intent to leave the European Union, there was a rush of speculation and guesswork about how EU trademark and design rights would be treated. What progress has been made and what obstacles remain to a smooth transition?
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Entertainment Law & Finance
'Star Wars' Sabacc Game Lawsuit Is Resolved
Ross Todd
Lucasfilm Ltd. won a dispute over the rights to the card game that plays a pivotal, if small, role in the greater Star Wars galaxy.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
4 Takeways from EU Copyright Directive Vote
Dan Clark
In September, the European Parliament passed a new draft of the European Union (EU) Copyright Directive legislation championed by content creators and publishers, but decried by tech behemoths. The directive will have to go through more committee discussions and another parliamentary vote before it can become law, but this doesn’t mean the polarizing legislation isn’t already making in-house counsel nervous.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Issues in Using Bots to Send Takedown Notices
Ian Lopez
We asked University of Idaho College of Law Professor Annemarie Bridy, one of the forefront experts in both DMCA and automated notice sending, about out of control bots, DMCA takedowns’ potential threat to freedom of speech and more.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Fed. Ct. Dismisses Film Companies’ GA Suit over Plane Crash
Greg Land
A federal judge in Atlanta dismissed a complaint filed by four movie-production companies hoping to dodge liability for a fatal plane crash tied to the filming of the Tom Cruise picture American Made.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Rap Video That Named Officers Not Protected Free Speech
Max Mitchell
A rap video posted to Facebook crossed the line from artistic to threatening when its lyrics described violent acts, named two Pittsburgh police officers and suggested the rappers knew where those officers lived, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court said in holding it was not protected by the First Amendment.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Warner Media Implements New Inclusion Policy
Kristen Rasmussen
It seems fitting that a new movie that highlights racism and inequity in the American prison system is the first Hollywood production to apply a policy aimed at increasing diversity and inclusion both in front of and behind the camera.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Bit Parts
Stan Soocher
BOSTON Band Principal Scholz Loses Appeal in “Original” Member Billing Dispute Against Former BOSTON Guitarist Goudreau
Former Band Member’s Counterclaims Against Commodores Are Dismissed
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Upcoming Event
TexasBarCLE 28th Annual Entertainment Law Institute
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Get Ready for California’s Version of the EU General Data Protection Regulation
Jacqueline Klosek
The entertainment industry is intensely focused on data collection and analytics as it seeks to maximize the exploitation of digital content. Just as those of us in the privacy field had begun to have a slight breather as much of the heavy lifting on the GDPR was finally behind us, lawmakers in California have passed the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA).
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Decision of Note: Sound Recordings Remasters Don’t Get Federal Copyright Protection
Scott Graham
With an assist from Toucan Sam and Tony Bennett, owners of pre-1972 sound recordings no longer have to worry about losing their common law…
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Prince’s Estate Files NJ Lawsuit over prince.com
Charles Toutant
A dealer in Internet domain names is accused in a cybersquatting suit of an illegal attempt to seize on the posthumous popularity of Prince.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Commentary: Amended Opinion No Cause for Alarm in ‘Blurred Lines’ Case Outcome
Robert J. Bernstein and Robert W. Clarida
Over the summer, a divided panel of the Ninth Circuit affirmed the denial of a new trial motion and an order denying rehearing en banc in Williams v. Gaye. We now consider whether the final affirmance of the jury verdict in favor of Marvin Gaye’s heirs is likely to wreak havoc on musical creativity as some, including the dissent, have argued. For us, the short answer is no.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Disney Claims over Party Characters Partially Dismissed
Jenna Greene
Disney Enterprises has been handed a setback in an ill-conceived lawsuit: Going after people who dress up as Disney-owned characters like Elsa from Frozen or Chewbacca from Star Wars to perform at children's birthday parties.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Attorneys’ Primer on Video Game Mods
Jeffrey N. Rosenthal and Ethan M. Simon
As far as software developers are concerned, video game modifications are not always a bad thing. The greatest cause for concern, however, arises when a modder creates a standalone game without permission from the developer — and then the new game takes market share away from the original.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Bit Parts
Stan Soocher
Katy Perry Defendants Denied Summary Judgment in Copyright Infringement Action Over “Dark Horse”
Former Percussionist for The Roots Can Proceed with Lanham Act and Publicity Rights Claims Against the Band
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Entertainment Law & Finance
How Disney Qualified for Design Patent for Marvel’s Captain America Shield
Lawrence E. Ashery
Fans of movies about fictional superheroes are probably familiar with Captain America and his miraculous shield. Recently, however, his shield showed up in a most unlikely place: the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Counsel Concerns: Lawyer Ethics Rule In Play in Suit By Business Manager Against Rap Artist
Stan Soocher
The U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina dismissed a conversion counterclaim by rapper Chingy against his former business manager Leslie King, who is a lawyer, on the ground that the artist hadn’t established that a royalty purchase agreement he signed with the lawyer was void for allegedly violating the state’s attorney ethics rule. However, the district court allowed the artist to pursue the ethics rule as an affirmative defense in the underlying lawsuit the attorney’s music company has filed against Chingy.
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