LJN Newsletters

The entertainment industry seems especially subject to discrimination cases ' whether based on age, sex, race ' and sexual harrassment/hostile work environment suits. EL&F will compile and report on them periodically.

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania lifted a temporary injunction that barred distribution of a new album by The O'Jays ' whose hits in the 1970s included "Love Train" and "Backstabbers" ' after finding that the group most likely had no power under its contract to stop its label from issuing a collection of previously unreleased songs.

The first line of defense in most copyright infringement actions revolves around the question of "access" ' namely, whether the defendant had a reasonable possibility of viewing or hearing the plaintiff's work such that the defendant could have copied it illegally. Absent some direct proof that the defendant actually copied the plaintiff's work ' evidence that typically is not present ' a plaintiff will attempt to prove such copying indirectly by establishing that a defendant had access to the plaintiff's work and that the defendant's work is "substantially similar" to the plaintiff's. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has made it more difficult for plaintiffs to prove access.
Specifically, in the Second Circuit's view, a company's "bare corporate receipt" of a plaintiff's work is insufficient proof of access.

Recent cases in entertainment law.

Employing its 'John Doe' litigation strategy again, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has sued another group of anonymous infringers ' this time 477 people ' accused of illegally distributing copyrighted sound recordings on peer-to-peer file sharing services.

Facing its first constitutional challenge to the Florida Computer Pornography and Child Exploitation Prevention Act of 1986, the Florida Court of Appeals recently scored a victory for child protection advocates and law enforcement

Music piracy cases in Georgia could determine whether recording companies must meet certain standards before forcing Internet service providers to hand over the names of subscribers suspected of downloading and circulating copyrighted, bootleg recordings.

While the Internet continues to replace traditional forms of commerce communication, the use of contracts to memorialize business agreements remains constant. In order to implement more fully the transition to Internet commerce communications, businesses are struggling to find an appropriate replacement for the traditional authentication procedures. In short, businesses seek lawful electronic signatures to replace traditional signatures. This query has resulted in six viable e-signature options.