DMX Wins Battle over ASCAP for Direct Music Licensing
Last July, Muzak competitor DMX and its Weil, Gotshal & Manges lawyers won a licensing fee ruling against Broadcast Music Inc. that had the potential to revolutionize the background music industry. Now the revolution continues: U.S. District Judge Denise Cote of the Southern District of New York has ruled that DMX must pay ASCAP a fee of only $13.74 to license ASCAP music in each of the 95,000 stores, restaurants and other locations that DMX supplies with background music. ASCAP wanted DMX to pay almost $50 per location.
Film Production Deal Ruled Separate from Marital Agreement
Billionaire Ronald Perelman has to pay $4.3 million to a film company he formed with his ex-wife, Ellen Barkin, despite Perelman's claim that the actress' breach of the couple's separation agreement relieved him of his financial obligations to the company, the New York Appellate Division, First Department ruled.
Battle Lines Sharply Drawn in Viacom's Appeal of U.S. District Judge's Ruling in YouTube Case
Now that the long-simmering copyright dispute between Hollywood and the Web has hit the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, the outcome could set a national precedent regarding the scope of potential liability for nearly every business on the Internet that posts infringing content.
Features
e-Commerce Bounces Back Strongly in Third Quarter
Are Americans taking to heart the talk of politicians and some private-sector observers that the long-punishing economic and financial crisis that has put businesses into scrapbooks and people on the street is on the wane? The Census Bureau said recently that preliminary estimated U.S. retail e-commerce sales shot up 4% from the second quarter, tallying $41.5 billion.
Supremes' 'No' on Tiffany Review Keeps Status Quo
The upshot of the Second Circuit holding ' and the Supreme Court's denial to hear the appeal ' is that despite a general knowledge that a significant percentage of Tiffany goods sold on eBay were counterfeit, eBay did not have a duty to prevent any such sales, unless and until a specific instance of fraud was brought to its attention.
Features
Cyber Monday Explodes
Little was virtual beyond a typical conversational reference to this holiday season's once-again record-setting Cyber Monday and other online-holiday shopping excursions. The retail-industry dubbed day for online shopping and incentives for consumers to cybershop hit the jackpot with an echoing boom Nov. 29, racking up the biggest day of online shopping in history and breaking the billion-dollar mark
Computer and Funds Transfer Fraud Endorsements Issues in Data Breach Claims
If your e-commerce company were to suffer a data breach, do you know that there is insurance coverage for related costs under some commercial crime-insurance policies? It is so. An Ohio federal court has held that a computer and funds transfer fraud endorsement in an AIG commercial-crime policy provides coverage for a data breach.
'Pre-Nupitis' ' Diagnosis and Treatment
Pre-nupitis" is a "disease" that afflicts the so-called less-monied spouse (the LMS) who, in upwards of 95% of the cases, is the bride-to-be.
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