Music on the Web
Any attorney practicing Internet law probably has plenty of clients that offer music to their users ' from background music for a site feature or page to television and movie programming, advertising, Webcasting, play-on-demand music and music videos. Those clients may think that all they need to play music on their service is a license from the record company that released it. Those clients would be wrong.
DMCA: A Safe Harbor for Video Sharing?
As the popularity of Web video continues to grow, so too does the potential for contributory copyright infringement on popular video-sharing Web sites. These Web sites become venues for infringing behavior, simply due to the sheer number of users uploading new videos daily. Consequently, content owners have contended that such Web sites must take a greater role in stemming their users' infringement. The Web site owners have countered that they need only follow the dictates outlined by the DMCA safe harbors that can immunize service providers from copyright liability. Thus, both sides continue to dispute what it means to be compliant with the DMCA. They also dispute which entity should bear the ultimate responsibility for policing video-sharing sites for infringing content: the Web site owner or the content owner.
Novel Internet Statute Strategies
The Internet presents special regulatory challenges. Any effective statute, for instance, must be prepared by an entity with the authority to draft, implement and, to some extent enforce, the statute. Efficacy, of course, hinges on jurisdiction, but the Internet knows no geography and, so, users leap boundaries with a finger poke or thumb flick. These challenges require novel statutory strategies to meet the Internet's current and future status as a channel and communications domain that requires regulation at various levels of operation and use
Bit Parts
TV Show Titles/Copyright, Trademark Claims<br>Inter-Label Litigation/Insurance Coverage<br>Trademark Infringement/Laches<br>Video Games/Artists' Indicia
Counsel Concerns
Malpractice Claims/File-Sharing Software<br>Malpractice Claims/Statute of Limitations
Cameo Clips
BOOK COPYRIGHTS/FAIR USE DEFENSE<br>USE OF VOICE/PUBLICITY, ENDORSEMENT CLAIMS
A Look At Disney's International Legal Team
For Peter Wiley, the Walt Disney Co.'s European head of legal, these are interesting times. His employer, one of the most iconic companies in the world, is engaged in a drive to expand internationally and take the House of Mouse into the digital age.
'360' Agreements Reflect Industry's Economic Shift
During the last few years, recording artists have been entering into so-called "360 agreements" with record companies and entertainment corporations in increasing numbers, changing the relationship that existed for decades among artists and major labels. Instead of focusing solely on sales of recorded music, the record companies now are sharing, through these agreements, in performers' income from a 360-degree range of professional activities. These developments reflect the difficulties encountered in the music industry as electronic transmission of recordings has become dominant and piracy rampant, making the financial returns from sales of records insufficient to justify the cost of creating, marketing and promoting recorded music.
Decision of Note
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit decided that NBC didn't breach the employment contract of a producer for the investigative TV series "Dateline" when it fired the producer at the end of a contract cycle.
Right-of-Publicity Amendments Extend Protections, But Marilyn Monroe LLC Suffers New Setback
Los Angeles entertainment attorney Robert A. Finkelstein accompanied Nancy Sinatra to Washington, DC, last summer for a U.S. Congressional hearing on a proposal for terrestrial radio stations to pay performance royalties to air sound recordings. Sinatra was a key artist-rights witness before the House Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property. Finkelstein praised a recent change in Washington state's right-of-publicity statute. The amendment, which took effect in June 2008, eliminated a personality's domicile as a bar to bringing a right-of-publicity suit.
