COPYRIGHT INFRINGMENT/NON-TRADITIONAL TEST<br>TRADEMARK INFRINGEMENT/BAND NAMES, ALBUM TITLES

Lawrence Y. Iser, a partner in Los Angeles's Kinsella, Weitzman, Iser, Kump &amp; Aldisert LLP, served as attorney for Jackson Browne in the McCain litigation and is counsel to musician David Byrne in a pending action against Florida Governor Charlie Crist that was filed after Crist used the Talking Heads' song and recording "Road to Nowhere" in Crist's campaign ad for the U.S. Senate. In the Q&amp;A that follows, Iser responds to questions from <i>Entertainment Law &amp; Finance</i> Editor-in-Chief Stan Soocher about litigation and related issues regarding music in political ads.

Features

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York decided that, in paying reduced royalties for English-titled instrumental versions of songs, Universal breached subpublishing agreements that Brazilian songwriters Antonio Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes entered into with Universal's predecessors-in-interest.

This article discusses issues that arise in the context of organization-commissioned materials by employees and third parties, the use of third-party materials, and privacy and publicity rights of performers and audience members.

Features

e-Commerce tools allow e-monitoring of an Internet user's actions ' but the desire of companies and others to know and to track what an Internet user does on the Internet isn't as simple an issue as just setting up the technology and being done with it.

A federal appeals court ruled last month that a trademark-infringement action can be brought against an out-of-state employee of an online retailer who sent a bogus handbag to an address in the Bronx, New York City, from a Web site that offered merchandise to New York consumers.

This article discusses software licenses generally, the availability of copyright and contract claims in the event of a breach, and other areas of disagreement that may arise in a software-licensing dispute.

Features

Record-breaking budget shortfalls have caused states to search outside the box for revenue-raising tools that many argue are unconstitutional and violate the consumer privacy that online shoppers have come to expect. Today, with so much of retail activity conducted over the Internet, states are struggling with revenue losses stemming from this constitutional restriction. States are reacting by becoming ever more creative in their attempts to capture this lost revenue by adopting new laws aimed at circumventing the Commerce Clause restrictions.