Features
Bit Parts
TV Show Titles/Copyright, Trademark Claims<br>Inter-Label Litigation/Insurance Coverage<br>Trademark Infringement/Laches<br>Video Games/Artists' Indicia
Features
Recovery for the Death of a Stillborn Child
The legal protection afforded to the unborn has become a procedural and substantive issue arising in both traditional and non-traditional contexts. Following is a look at case law, past and present.
Features
Counsel Concerns
Malpractice Claims/File-Sharing Software<br>Malpractice Claims/Statute of Limitations
Cameo Clips
BOOK COPYRIGHTS/FAIR USE DEFENSE<br>USE OF VOICE/PUBLICITY, ENDORSEMENT CLAIMS
Features
A Look At Disney's International Legal Team
For Peter Wiley, the Walt Disney Co.'s European head of legal, these are interesting times. His employer, one of the most iconic companies in the world, is engaged in a drive to expand internationally and take the House of Mouse into the digital age.
'360' Agreements Reflect Industry's Economic Shift
During the last few years, recording artists have been entering into so-called "360 agreements" with record companies and entertainment corporations in increasing numbers, changing the relationship that existed for decades among artists and major labels. Instead of focusing solely on sales of recorded music, the record companies now are sharing, through these agreements, in performers' income from a 360-degree range of professional activities. These developments reflect the difficulties encountered in the music industry as electronic transmission of recordings has become dominant and piracy rampant, making the financial returns from sales of records insufficient to justify the cost of creating, marketing and promoting recorded music.
Decision of Note
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit decided that NBC didn't breach the employment contract of a producer for the investigative TV series "Dateline" when it fired the producer at the end of a contract cycle.
Features
Right-of-Publicity Amendments Extend Protections, But Marilyn Monroe LLC Suffers New Setback
Los Angeles entertainment attorney Robert A. Finkelstein accompanied Nancy Sinatra to Washington, DC, last summer for a U.S. Congressional hearing on a proposal for terrestrial radio stations to pay performance royalties to air sound recordings. Sinatra was a key artist-rights witness before the House Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property. Finkelstein praised a recent change in Washington state's right-of-publicity statute. The amendment, which took effect in June 2008, eliminated a personality's domicile as a bar to bringing a right-of-publicity suit.
The New York City Family Court Legal Services Project
Since Fall 2006, over 1,200 low-income families have been helped by an innovative pro bono project run by the New York City Family Court. The project is administering a much-needed jolt to a system overwhelmed by unrepresented litigants and a lack of resources.
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MOST POPULAR STORIES
- Protecting Innovation in the Cyber World from Patent TrollsWith trillions of dollars to keep watch over, the last thing we need is the distraction of costly litigation brought on by patent assertion entities (PAEs or "patent trolls"), companies that don't make any products but instead seek royalties by asserting their patents against those who do make products.Read More ›
- Private Equity Valuation: A Significant DecisionInsiders (and others) in the private equity business are accustomed to seeing a good deal of discussion ' academic and trade ' on the question of the appropriate methods of valuing private equity positions and securities which are otherwise illiquid. An interesting recent decision in the Southern District has been brought to our attention. The case is <i>In Re Allied Capital Corp.</i>, CCH Fed. SEC L. Rep. 92411 (US DC, S.D.N.Y., Apr. 25, 2003). Judge Lynch's decision is well written, the Judge reviewing a motion to dismiss by a business development company, Allied Capital, against a strike suit claiming that Allied's method of valuing its portfolio failed adequately to account for i) conditions at the companies themselves and ii) market conditions. The complaint appears to be, as is often the case, slap dash, content to point out that Allied revalued some of its positions, marking them down for a variety of reasons, and the stock price went down - all this, in the view of plaintiff's counsel, amounting to violations of Rule 10b-5.Read More ›
- Meet the Lawyer Working on Inclusion Rider LanguageAt the Oscars in March, Best Actress winner Frances McDormand made “inclusion rider” go viral. But Kalpana Kotagal, a partner at Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll had already worked for months to write the language for such provisions. Kotagal was developing legal language for contract provisions that Hollywood's elite could use to require studios and other partners to employ diverse workers on set.Read More ›
- Use of Deferred Prosecution Agreements In White Collar InvestigationsThis article discusses the practical and policy reasons for the use of DPAs and NPAs in white-collar criminal investigations, and considers the NDAA's new reporting provision and its relationship with other efforts to enhance transparency in DOJ decision-making.Read More ›
- The DOJ Goes Phishing: The Rise of False Claims Act Cybersecurity LitigationWhile the DOJ Civil Cyber-Fraud Initiative is still in its early stages and cybersecurity regulations are evolving, whistleblower plaintiffs have already begun leveraging the FCA to pursue alleged noncompliance with government cybersecurity requirements.Read More ›