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Most employers have come to realize that personal use of the Internet at work by employees can decrease productivity, and that employees downloading inappropriate material can lead to hostile work environment claims. What many employers have not yet thought about is the potentially explosive problems facing them as the music industry continues its crackdown on those who illegally download and share pirated music files over the Internet.
When corporate employees engage in criminal wrongdoing, the result is often civil litigation against their employer. The criminal conviction of such employees, whether by trial or plea, or their invocation of the privilege against self-incrimination, can have serious adverse consequences in related civil litigations against their employer, even if the employee (or former employee) is not a party. This article discusses the use of such evidence against corporations.
Features
Depending on the circumstances and the law, parties on either side of an entertainment suit may ask a court for an award of attorney fees. Following are recent court rulings that deal with this and related concerns. In this and future issues, <i>Entertainment Law & Finance</i> will report on such relevant rulings in Attorney-Fee Updates.
The Court of Appeal of California, Second Appellate District, Division Seven, decided that claims over the use of computer-altered likenesses of the plaintiffs in children's television programming were covered by the Uniform Single Publication Act (USPA), Calif. Civ. Code Sec. 3425.1 <i>et seq.</i> Thus, the claims were barred by California's relevant two-year statute of limitations. <i>Long v. The Walt Disney Co.</i>, B164750.
Features
Highlights of the latest insurance cases from around the country.
There has long been a dispute between songwriters and publishers as to whether songwriters are entitled to a proportional share of a publisher's savings resulting from foreign tax credits. A recent decision of New York's highest court, the Court of Appeals, resolved this issue in favor of the publisher. Under the ruling, absent express contractual language to the contrary, a songwriter is not entitled to share in the benefit of foreign tax credits taken by his or her publisher. Drafters and negotiators should take particular note of this development.
Features
Cases in entertainment law that deal with the use, deployment or development of technology.
In theatre, "recoupment" is a term of art that all knowledgeable persons in the business understand to have a specific meaning. Simply stated, the concept is that the author, director or others involved in the play can be paid more after the play has started making a profit, which is the time when the investors could have recovered their respective investments. It has always been a good negotiation tactic, for example, to offer the author more after the play is making a profit. This tactic has saved many deals that could have fallen through.