Sports Law

By Marc Jacobson We recently posted a blog regarding the Writers Guild of America's (WGA) undertaking to pay managers or agents who negotiate agreements on behalf of writers, during the period in which writers have discharged their agents, as suggested by the WGA, as a result of the conflict of ... Read More

On the Road to a Modern Copyright System — Josh Simmons provides a thorough look at the history of copyright registration in the U.S., chock-full of interesting trivia and tidbits. European Copyright Reforms Clear Final Hurdle at EU Before Heading Back to Member States — The sweeping set of reforms, ... Read More

Filing a federal trademark application in the U.S. requires careful attention to a number of details, including obvious components, like the configuration of the mark and the nature of the goods and/or services on which it is being used or will be used. Of the numerous elements that go into ... Read More

By Marc Jacobson In a very unusual move, in support of its writer members, during this period when the Writers Guild of America (WGA) has asked its members to fire their agents, the WGA last night agreed to pay to managers and lawyers of writers, the fees that are due ... Read More

By Barry Skidelsky, EASL Section Chair In the wake of this year's exciting NCAA March Madness, a federal court in Kentucky last month dismissed a NCAA basketball referee's lawsuit against a sports radio network and its on-air talent. The complaint alleged multiple causes of action: Intentional infliction of emotional distress, ... Read More

By Leslie Berman Edited by Elissa D. Hecker The following stories are divided into the categories Entertainment, Arts, Sports, Media, and General News: Entertainment Hollywood Upended as Unions Tell Writers to Fire Agents The Writer's Guild of America told its 13,000 members to fire their agents after talks between the ... Read More

Richard Ashby Wilson, University of Connecticut School of Law, is publishing Brandenburg in An Era of Populism: Risk Analysis in the First Amendment in the University of Pennsylvania Journal of Law & Public Affairs (2019). Here is the abstract. We ... Read More

On Thursday, February 14, 2019, The Art & Law Program hosted the book launch of "Models of Integrity: Art and Law in Post-Sixties America" by Joan Kee (PhD in Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, 2008; JD, Harvard Law School, 2000; BA in History of Art, Yale University, 1997). ... Read More

Hannibal Travis, Florida International University College of Law, has published The ‘Monster’ That Ate Social Networking? in Cyberspace Law: Censorship and Regulation of the Internet (Travis ed., Routledge 2013). Here is the abstract. This chapter analyzes the privacy, intellectual property, ... Read More

The New York Times has started “The Privacy Project” and kicks off the story correctly with an introspective opinion piece from the boss, A.G. Sulzberger.  We should do the same. Over the past few years, The New York Times has reported aggressively on the erosion of digital privacy, bringing information ... Read More

The Golden Age of YouTube is Over — There was a time in the early days of the internet when existing creative industries were decried as legacy dinosaurs, and user-generated services like YouTube were hailed as ushering in a new era of culture and creativity. Verge‘s Julia Alexander reports that ... Read More

By Joshua Lahijani When Lil Nas X, an unknown artist at the time, released his single "Old Town Road" on December 3, 2019, he couldn't have known how successful it would become. As of April 10, 2019, it has charted no. 1 on the Billboard Top 100, thanks in part ... Read More

A recent order of the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (“IURC”) sheds lights on the validity of municipal ordinances purporting to require utilities to pay the costs of utility relocations. The IURC voided a municipal ordinance that attempted to require utilities to pay relocation costs as being unreasonable and inconsistent with ... Read More

Six Georgia state lawmakers think a set of ethical standards for journalists would be an excellent idea, and they've introduced a bill, "The Ethics in Journalism Act," to try to make it so. Coverage from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution points out ... Read More

By Adelaide Saucier. Trademarks saturate our everyday life. We idolize the icons, we adorn ourselves with brands, we use brands and marks to orient ourselves in social status and cultural circles. From the perspective of the visual arts, many artists use distinctive colors which become the artist’s “brand:” we immediately ... Read More

California Senate Bill 206,[1] the “Fair Pay to Play Act,” was amended again last month, and is making its way through the legislature under sponsorship by Sen. Nancy Skinner-D and Sen. Steven Bradford-D. If passed, the new law would pave the way for college athletes in California to earn compensation—including ... Read More

A change in the rules for Oscar eligibility proposed by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) may violate antitrust laws, according to the Department of Justice. At issue is whether feature-length films produced by streaming services like Netflix should be eligible for Oscar consideration, even though they ... Read More

By Lisa Ornest Edited by Elissa D. Hecker Below, for your browsing convenience, the categories are divided into Entertainment, Arts, Sports, Media, and General News: Entertainment My Sweet Lord The copyright wars spawned by "Blurred Lines" have the strongest effect on the lowest link in the chain, the songwriters, whose ... Read More

Claudia E. Haupt, Northeastern University School of Law; Yale University, Yale Information Society Project, is publishing Sex and the First Amendment Through the Lens of Professional Speech in volume 17 of the First Amendment Law Review (2019). Here is the ... Read More

Have Songwriters Turned the Tide Against Big Tech? (Guest Column) — NMPA President David Israelite writes, “What’s astounding about this progress is the imbalance of influence is so dramatic. It is remarkable that anyone could stand up to the likes of Google, Amazon, Spotify and the other tech titans who ... Read More

By Brian Taylor Goldstein Most of you are aware by now that in fall 2018 a number of significant policy and procedural changes were imposed on the already exasperating process of obtaining U.S. artist visas. No surprisingly, these changes were the work of Donald Trump, who is also known by ... Read More

Just released by the House Standing Committee on Communications and the Arts: A report on the inquiry in the Australian music industry. Download it from links available here. ... Read More

By Jennie Nadel. What's new in tax law and how can this affect the art world? To defer taxes as before, art owners can now sell art and invest in real estate in low-income zones located in all 50 states. The following study examines the changed tax law landscape and ... Read More

By Jennie Nadel. What’s new in tax law and how can this affect the art world? To defer taxes as before, art owners can now sell art and invest in real estate in low-income zones located in all 50 states. The following study examines the changed tax law landscape and ... Read More

[Excellent work by Eleonora Rosati in Slate on the EU Copyright Directive.  This new legislation is important to creators around the world because it applies to the exploitation of all copyrights in Europe, not just European copyrights in Europe.] On Tuesday, at the end of a process that lasted more ... Read More

By Chantelle A. Gyamfi Edited by Elissa D. Hecker The following articles are divided into Entertainment, Arts, Sports, Media, and General News: ENTERTAINMENT Charges Dropped Against Jussie Smollet - Chicago's Mayor Is Not Pleased Just a month after being indicted on 16 counts, prosecutors in Chicago have dropped all charges ... Read More

Grégoire Webber, Queen's University, Faculty of Law, London School of Economics, Law Department, is publishing Proportionality and Limitations on Freedom of Speech in the Oxford Handbook of Freedom of Speech (Fred Schauer and Adrienne Stone, eds., Forthcoming). ‘Nothing is more ... Read More

By Barry Skidelsky, Esq., EASL Section Chair In a move that has taken industry observers by complete surprise, a joint press release was issued this morning announcing the merger of Disney, Amazon, Netflix, and Google (DANG). Similar to the process involved with a pre-packaged bankruptcy, both the Department of Justice ... Read More

By Bennett Liebman As part of the 2019 State budget negotiations, the owners of the two video lottery (VLT) parlors in the New York City area have proposed that they be allowed to convert their facilities into full-fledged casinos. They have promised considerable financial support to the State in return ... Read More

Image from 123RF LimitedRappers Terrence “2 Milly” Ferguson and James “BlocBoy JB” Baker, influencer Russell “Backpack Kid” Horning, and actor Alfonso Ribeiro (best known for his role as “Carlton Banks” in the sitcom “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air”) have dismissed their claims against Epic Games for allegedly infringing their signature ... Read More