Entertainment and Sports Law

Approximately 30 states have enacted anti-SLAPP statutes, which are intended to deter lawsuits that impede the right to free speech and other related activities. New statutory language in Texas's anti-SLAPP statute specifically protects those in the entertainment and media industries, and such explicit reference should prove comfort to content creators and publishers.

From a risk management perspective, festivals now run the gamut on potential liabilities that include collapsed stages, cancelled performances, severe weather, terrorism, alcohol liability, patron bodily harm and death, product liability and breach of contract claims. In essence, music festivals have become a microcosm of live entertainment-related liability exposures.

Remember the nasty fight between Tom Petty's widow and daughters over control of his estate? Now the mud is splattering the lawyers, too.

The increased use of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies, which have spread to the entertainment industry, including for royalty revenue determinations, has given rise to a variety of disputes. Substantive issues regarding the offer, sale and trading of digital tokens are coming before the courts, prompting novel discovery questions in these cases.

Courts Refuse to Hand Over Documentary Audio and Outtakes

This article discusses the basic tax issues facing social media influencers, who have become an important element in the entertainment industry.

As the now four-and-a-half-year-long legal dispute between Kesha and her former music producer Dr. Luke continues in New York court, a state appeals panel has decided that the pop singer can compel Sony Music Entertainment to identify people interviewed in its internal investigation that examined Kesha's claims of sexual misconduct by the producer.

The case is rooted in an underlying lawsuit filed nearly two decades ago in New York by black music promoters Leonard Rowe and Lee King against the William Morris Agency and several other booking and talent agencies.