LJN Newsletters

Recent developments of note in the Internet industry.
This month:
First Suit Filed Against Internet 'Spyware'
House Passes Second Anti-Spyware Bill
Grokster Officals Settle Separate Copyright Case
AOL Files First 'Spim' Suit
RIAA Sues 750 More
U.S. Teen Soccer Prodigy Adu Wins Cybersquatter Case
U.S. Declares War on Intellectual Property Theft

We've covered the CAN SPAM Act fairly extensively from a "what is it" type of perspective. In this article, Board of Editors member Jonathan Bick provides some practical advice on how to advise those clients who want to send marketing e-mails lawfully (it just doesn't seem right to say "spam lawfully.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that a New York-based plaintiff properly filed suit in Manhattan federal court alleging unjust enrichment and misappropriation of idea by the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC). Gross v. British Broadcasting Corp. Plaintiff Pat Gross claimed that the BBC had without permission used her idea for a documentary about militant animal-rights activists that was broadcast in the United Kingdom. The district court dismissed the complaint for forum non conveniens.

As a companion to his feature article on online content aggregators, Chris Castle discusses some of the new hardware that is available for downloading and playing online music ' and its possible effect on online music subscription rates.

Recent developments in entertainment law.

In the superheated competition of reality television programming, ownership of ideas is increasingly being disputed.
Allegations of idea theft will likely increase as the number of reality TV shows expands and the realm of truly novel ideas shrinks. Resolution of these cases could set new standards for ownership of ideas and the best ways of protecting those rights.

Legitimate online music services have struggled to provide content from the fragmented independent music world. Until recently, independent artists were not very present on the legitimate online music services. This is partly because the major labels control the best-known recordings, partly because the major labels usually support online distribution with significant marketing budgets and partly because it is not very efficient for an online service to negotiate agreements with thousands of independent artists.
But after securing licenses from the major labels, the major online services sought to differentiate their offerings by adding independent artists. This created opportunities for a few companies to enter into "middleman" distribution agreements with many independent artists, and then enter into a licensing agreement with an online service for the artists' content. (Aggregators may also represent smaller independent labels, but this article will focus on independent artists who are also copyright owners.)

Recently filed cases in entertainment law, straight from the steps of the Los Angeles Superior Court.