LJN Newsletters

While Canada-U.S. trade relations have been historically close, and cross-border trade greatly liberalized since the entry into force of the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement in 1988 and the NAFTA in 1994, the complex area of trade in defense products remains highly regulated and subject, in certain respects, to important restrictions. Significant regulatory pitfalls exist for companies with continentally integrated operations in the form of export permit requirements for items that are transferred across (and frequently back across) the U.S.-Canada border. Corporate non-compliance with these requirements, even though unintentional, can lead potentially to heavy penalties under both U.S. and Canadian law.

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.

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, Entertainment Law & Finance 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 et seq. Thus, the claims were barred by California's relevant two-year statute of limitations. Long v. The Walt Disney Co., B164750.

Recent cases in entertainment law.

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.