IP News
February 01, 2007
Highlights of the latest intellectual property news from around the country.
<b>Decision of Note: </b>Webcasts Receive TV Copyright Treatment
January 31, 2007
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division, decided that an unauthorized link to live Webcasts of the plaintiff's SFX Motor Sports Supercross motorcycle races constituted a displayed copy or performance of those copyrightable works.
Music Publisher Concerns over Viral-Video Sites
January 31, 2007
The Internet has presented numerous challenges to the music industry. Unlicensed digital downloading has been at the top of the list for several years. More recently, the use of music on viral-video Web sites has produced a new set of challenges. Three of the four major record labels have struck content deals with mega-viral-video site YouTube, as have two of the three major TV networks. But music publishers haven't been involved in significant direct viral-video-site negotiations. In the following interview, conducted by Entertainment Law & Finance Editor-in-Chief Stan Soocher, Keith C. Hauprich, Vice President, Business & Legal Affairs for Cherry Lane Music Publishing Company, Inc., discusses music-publishing concerns in the viral-video age. As General Counsel for one of the world's largest independent music publishers, Hauprich's responsibilities include coordinating relationships with outside counsel, overseeing the due-diligence process and playing an integral role in finding new business opportunities for the company.
e-Lawyering Is Not For the Faint-Hearted
January 31, 2007
Today, the pervasive role that technology has assumed in business and legal practice, as more and more of our daily lives are lived online, provides a more fundamental challenge to how attorneys practice business law. In an age when 'paper file' has become an anachronism and an oxymoron, business law and the way it is practiced have required more than just tinkering with particular rules.
Who You Gonna Call? Ghostwriters!
January 31, 2007
One of the best ways for a lawyer to show clients and prospects that he or she has 'the right stuff' is to write stuff ' for legal trades, B2B publications, consumer magazines and, of course, all those content-hungry Web sites. Every legal marketer knows this ' a nd so do most lawyers. The problem is that many attorneys are too busy doing paid work to perform this marketing must, while others may be phobic about writing for a publication (a fear similar to that of public speaking), or simply lack a talent for writing or the know-how to structure an article that motivates businesspeople or consumers to pick up the phone. While partners with associates at their beck and call may be able to palm off the task, all too often associates are too busy trying to meet their quota of billable hours, or pro bono work, or too wet behind the ears to produce something that a partner would want to put under his or her name. So what to do?
e-Commerce Attorney-Client Privileged Records Have a Right to Die Too
January 31, 2007
e-Commerce records may have less legal protection from disclosure than traditional commerce records ' a situation that might cause some concern for e-commerce company principals, their counsel and customers ' even after the companies, and the law firms representing them, no longer exist.
What's Your <i>IQ</i>?
January 31, 2007
Transactional attorneys must ask and answer a deep and relevant question: 'On what does it depend?' If, as Sir Francis Bacon wrote, knowledge is power, then the answer to that 'what' in the question lies in an attorney's information quotient, or IQ.
Voluntary Disclosures Under the FCPA
January 30, 2007
<i>' ' [A]lthough nothing is off the table when you voluntarily disclose, I can tell you in unequivocal terms that you will get a real benefit ' '</i> Despite these heartening words by Assistant U.S. Attorney General Alice S. Fisher at a recent conference on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), an attorney representing a corporation cannot recommend voluntary disclosure of potentially criminal FCPA activities without weighing the promise of a 'real benefit' against the very real risks.
