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Features

When 'Web Presence' Creates Jurisdiction Image

When 'Web Presence' Creates Jurisdiction

Stephen M. Kramarsky

The Web may not be truly worldwide, but it is getting fairly close, and while this has created enormous opportunities, it is not without its challenges. Among the thorniest of these have been issues of jurisdiction, which have been a staple of Web jurisprudence since the earliest days of e-commerce (and even before that). This has only gotten more complex as Web business models have diversified: A modern Web site for a company based in Chicago might be designed in New York, coded in California, supported in India, connected via a Virginia Internet service provider and hosted on servers in the Bahamas (offshore hosting being more and more common for both cost and privacy reasons). More importantly, the company might reasonably expect that site to be viewed by users from Brooklyn to Beijing, and perhaps to be subject to the laws of every jurisdiction in the world.

Features

Bit Parts Image

Bit Parts

Stan Soocher

Copyright Infringement/Rule 12(b)(6) Motion<br>Record Labels and Their Lawyers/Malicious Prosecution<br>Songwriter Royalties/State Levy Statute<br>Video Games/ Celebrity Trademarks<br>UPCOMING EVENT: SXSW Music Conference 2008 CLE Program

Cameo Clips Image

Cameo Clips

ALM Staff & Law Journal Newsletters

TALENT AGENCIES ACT/SEVERABILITY DOCTRINE<br>VIDEO GAMES/ARTISTS' INDICIA

U.S. Supreme Court Favors Arbitration Over CA Agent's Law Image

U.S. Supreme Court Favors Arbitration Over CA Agent's Law

ALM Staff & Law Journal Newsletters

The U.S. Supreme Court decided that the Federal Arbitration Act the California Talent Agencies Act for purposes of sending a dispute between a TV personality and his personal manager to an arbitrator per an arbitration clause in the management contract.

Features

Superman Rights Are Not Part of Marital Property Image

Superman Rights Are Not Part of Marital Property

Stan Soocher

The Court of Appeal of California, Second District, decided that any interests in Superman copyrights or termination rights held by Laura Siegel Larson, daughter of Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel, were her separate property, rather than community property of her marriage.

Features

Comic-Book Rights Get Close Look Image

Comic-Book Rights Get Close Look

Marcia Coyle

As a child, Geoffrey Gerber grabbed comic books out of his dentist's treat bag after checkups. As an intellectual-property partner at Husch Blackwell Sanders, he grabs comic books ' key elements now in a substantial portion of his practice ' out of his litigator's case. 'There's a tremendous amount of comic-book litigation out there,' says Gerber, who practices in St. Louis for the newly merged firm. He adds that comic books, which hit it big in the 1930s as mainstream media, are 'fairly new media' in the scope of entertainment.

Sampling Suit Is Filed over Fergie Hit Image

Sampling Suit Is Filed over Fergie Hit

John Pacenti

West Palm Beach, FL, resident Derrick Rahming dreamed of making it big with the hip-hop band Afro Rican and even formed a production company in the mid-1990s. These days millions have heard Rahming's group, even if they don't know it. A sample of his song 'Give It All You Got' jump-starts mega-star Fergie's hit 'Fergalicious' from her album The Duchess. Rahming recently filed a copyright-infringement suit, alleging he wrote the intro to the Billboard pop-chart topper in the late 1980s. He registered it with the U.S. Copyright Office and recorded it in its most popular form in 1995.

Features

<b><i>Commentary:</b></i> As 2013 Approaches, Artist Termination Right Faces Record Labels' Work-For-Hire Argument Image

<b><i>Commentary:</b></i> As 2013 Approaches, Artist Termination Right Faces Record Labels' Work-For-Hire Argument

Jay Rosenthal

It's time to start thinking about work for hire again. Technically, 2013 is the first year qualified recording artists may exercise the termination right that will result in reversion to them of the copyrights in their sound recordings from their record labels. There is no doubt about it: Whether referred to hyperbolically as a 'time bomb' or more benignly as a 'leak' in the record company's vaults, how the sound recording work-for-hire problem is resolved will have enormous financial and political impact on both record labels and recording artists.

Amicus Attorney Small Firm Edition 2008: An Incremental Upgrade Image

Amicus Attorney Small Firm Edition 2008: An Incremental Upgrade

Richard C. Belthoff, Jr.

The 2008 version is aimed at firms that do not have the computing power to install Amicus Attorney 7 (the successor to the discontinued Amicus Attorney X), which is a product that operates online. The main benefit to a product like Amicus Attorney 7 is that you can access your case data from any computer that has an Internet connection.

The Impact of Technology on Case Law under the 2006 FRCP Amendments Image

The Impact of Technology on Case Law under the 2006 FRCP Amendments

Adam Cohen & Jason Ray

The 2006 amendments to the FRCP contain a host of technology-oriented standards and procedures. Accordingly, it is not surprising that the case law in the wake of these amendments reflects the unstoppable march and advancement of computer technology. This article illustrates some of the most important ways in which this technology has influenced judicial opinions regarding electronically stored information under the new rules.

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