CA Supreme Court: Film/Book Consulting, Not Conflicts Mandating Recusal
May 28, 2008
It was prosecutor vindication time at the California Supreme Court in May. In unanimous rulings authored by Justice Kathryn Mickle Werdegar, the state high court held that the Second District Court of Appeal erred when it ordered three deputy district attorneys removed from separate cases each was handling. The ruling chastised the Second District's Ventura branch for failing to grant appropriate deference to a trial court judge's decision that no disqualifying conflict existed for Santa Barbara County prosecutors Joyce Dudley and Ronald Zonen.
RIAA Counsel Appointed Appellate Judge
May 28, 2008
Richard L. Gabriel, the lead attorney for the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in its copyright-infringement suits against individuals over the file-sharing of music, has been appointed to the Colorado Court of Appeals.
<b>Practice Notes:</b> Judge Denies Fees to Lawyers in Hip-Hop Bankruptcy
May 28, 2008
A bankruptcy judge slammed a New York law firm for putting its own desire to be paid above the interests of its hip-hop publishing client in a Chapter 11 proceeding. In a stinging 38-page decision, Southern District of New York Bankruptcy Judge Arthur J. Gonzalez denied Windels Marx Lane & Mittendorf any compensation for its work on the bankruptcy of hip-hop media company Source Enterprises Inc.
'Purchaser' Didn't Include Disney Subsidiaries
May 28, 2008
The California Court of Appeal, Second District, decided that the term 'Purchaser' in an agreement for 'Walt Disney Productions' to purchase rights in the novel 'Who Censored Roger Rabbit?' and its characters didn't apply to Disney's subsidiaries.
Focusing on Issues In Artist/Label 360-Degree Deals
May 28, 2008
One could argue that the concept of the '360-degree deal' harkens back to the record business of the 1950s and 1960s. Then, labels would commonly provide integrated A&R, publishing, management and promotional services to their artists, as well as put them out on tours with their label mates. But today's 360 deals are substantially different. Generally, a 360 deal has a label participating in revenue streams outside of its traditional business of manufacturing and distributing recordings.
In the Spotlight: Preparing Form Leases for Mixed-Use Projects
May 27, 2008
As the construction of mixed-use projects continues to grow across the nation and globally, all parties involved must understand the dynamics of the project in which they are involved and how best to structure the relationships among the several parties, which will generally have divergent interests. The building block for this relationship will likely be a form lease.
Where the Law Stands On Virtual Property
April 30, 2008
The filing of a complaint by a Pennsylvania lawyer against the operators of an online virtual world, and last year's decision by a Pennsylvania federal district court in that case, <i>Bragg v. Linden Research Inc.</i>, has generated a great deal of interest in the media and among lawyers, as well as in the virtual world community. The attention has gone well beyond that which the decision would have garnered if it had not involved a virtual world and virtual property, given that it simply found an arbitration clause in a terms-of-service agreement to be unconscionable and therefore unenforceable. It is clear, however, that the case reflects the growth of real-life litigation over virtual-world property. Undoubtedly, as participation in virtual worlds increases, real-life lawsuits will be growing in number, too.
'Distribution' in Peer-to-Peer File-Sharing Lawsuits
April 30, 2008
The efforts of the entertainment industry to stem the infringement of sound recordings and motion pictures on the Internet have been widely reported. More than 20,000 infringement actions have been commenced against individuals, mostly in connection with their use of peer-to-peer ('P2P') services to share recordings with other P2P users. The legal basis for these actions is often misunderstood, however, by commentators ' and sometimes even by the courts. This article discusses several recent P2P cases that deal directly with a central element of most P2P cases, namely the allegation that users violate the plaintiffs' distribution rights under 17 U.S.C. '106 whenever they place a digital recording or video in a 'share' folder that other P2P users can access.
