Sports Law

This post first appeared on MusicTech Solutions This is a recording of a webinar about the Mechanical Licensing Collective that I did with Abby North and Gwen Seale, sponsored by Texas Accountants and Lawyers for the Arts, Austin Texas Musicians and Austin Music Foundation.   The webinar is from the ... Read More

The latest issue of Music & Copyright is now available for subscribers to download. Here are some of the highlights. US music industry stakeholders breath a collective sigh of relief as the DoJ decides not to amend the consent decrees US performing rights organizations (PROs) ASCAP and BMI can breathe ... Read More

In response to a copyright claim that the Netflix series “Stranger Things” infringed the plaintiff’s unpublished screenplays, Netflix and the other defendants filed a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss, arguing that the works were not substantially similar as a matter of law.  In connection with the motion, Netflix submitted – ... Read More

By Travis Marmara Edited by Elissa D. Hecker Below, for your browsing convenience, the categories are divided into: Entertainment, Arts, Sports, Technology/Media, and General News (including the Coronavirus): Entertainment Director of Amazon India Drama Cuts Scenes Amid Outcry From Hindu Nationalists Ali Abbas Zafar, the director of Amazon web series ... Read More

Entertainment Law Update Podcast Episode 129 - Tamera Bennett and Gordon Firemark Listen to Dallas-area music lawyer Tamera Bennett and Los Angeles film lawyer Gordon Firemark discuss the latest entertainment law issues on the Entertainment Law Update Podcast. Click the arrow below to listen or click the "iTunes Store" box ... Read More

Judith P. Miller, University of Chicago Law School, has published Defending Speech Crimes on the University of Chicago Legal Forum, 2020. Here is the abstract. The First Amendment is supposed to provide important protections against criminal prosecutions for speech crimes. ... Read More

For some reason, there’s a focus at the moment on songwriter royalties and in particular for streaming royalty rates.  Notice that I said “rates” not “share” or the one I find particularly irritating, “share of the pie.”  Let us be clear—there is no “pie” there are only “rates”.  Or should be.  Let’s investigate why. ... Read More

By Bennett Liebman New Report: Audiences Want Vaccines and Masks Before They Return, https://www.americantheatre.org/2021/01/21/new-report-audiences-want-vaccines-and-masks-before-they-return/ Actors' Equity warns delay in vaccination efforts will hurt theater industry restart, https://broadwaynews.com/2021/01/21/actors-equity-warns-delay-in-vaccination-efforts-will-hurt-theater-industry-restart/ In two years, a sea change in the number of women running Connecticut theaters, http://bway.ly/nixqd9#https://www.courant.com/ctnow/arts-theater/hc-ctnow-women-running-connecticut-theaters-20210122-6gqzk5zapbdfffv56nrn6eao2i-story.html Gov. Cuomo proposes tax credits for theatrical productions, ... Read More

By Bennett Liebman Japan dismisses 'categorically untrue' stories that Tokyo Olympics are doomed, https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/jan/22/tokyo-olympics-covid-putting-real-pressure-on-japan-says-australia-pm-amid-cancellation-rumours Memorandum of Governor Cuomo's Budget Piece on Mobile Sports Wagering Memorandum in Support, https://www.budget.ny.gov/pubs/archive/fy22/ex/artvii/revenue-memo.pdf NEW HAMPSHIRE LOTTERY DEFEATS TRUMP IN CASE THAT BOLSTERS ONLINE GAMBLING, https://www.sportico.com/law/analysis/2021/wire-act-court-ruling-1234620805/ Opinion of 1st Circuit in Wire Act Case, http://media.ca1.uscourts.gov/pdf.opinions/19-1835P-01A.pdf Breaking ... Read More

How one musician took on the world’s biggest TV network over copyright—and won — “You’ve heard Kerry Muzzey’s work (Bandcamp, Spotify), even if you haven’t heard of him. The 50-year-old classical music composer from Joliet, Illinois, who now lives in Los Angeles, produces haunting orchestral scores that soundtrack some of the ... Read More

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By Barry Werbin Herrick, Feinstein LLP Commercial landlords face the risk of substantial economic damages if they turn a blind eye to ongoing sales of counterfeit merchandise on their leased premises. This was emphasized in a January 6, 2021 opinion by the federal Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ... Read More

Owners of copyright in characters are often well-advised not to press their claims too far in litigation at the risk of losing their rights altogether. This may be what motivated a quick settlement of litigation over Sherlock Holmes. In June, 2020, the estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle sued Netflix ... Read More

In News from the Goolag, the well-known Cypriot and former Googler Eric “Uncle Sugar” Schmidt is back in town.   What Uncle Sugar is probably not quite ready for is that neither the press nor the people are all awow over just how groovy it is to be him–unlike President ... Read More

Frank Fagan, EDHEC Business School, is publishing Two-Sided Social Media and Bad Faith Political Speech in volume 29 of Research in Law and Economics (2021). Here is the abstract. The First Amendment affords protection to political speech on the basis ... Read More

David L. Hudson, Jr., Belmont University College of Law, is publishing Essay: The Fighting Words Doctrine: Alive and Well in the Lower Courts in volume 19 of the University of New Hampshire Law Review (2020). Here is the abstract. The ... Read More

By La-Vaughnda A. Taylor Edited by Elissa D. Hecker Below, for your browsing convenience, the categories are divided into: Entertainment, Arts, Sports, Media/Technology, General News, and COVID: Entertainment Moodsters v. Disney The Supreme Court has refused to revive a copyright case filed against Walt Disney over Pixar's animated hit "Inside ... Read More

By Bennett Liebman Two Democrat Senators Spar With NCAA Over NIL, College Athletes' Rights, https://www.si.com/college/2021/01/14/ncaa-athlete-rights-compensation-congress-nil The NCAA Can't Make Up Its Mind On Athlete NIL Rights; Here's Some Help, https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewzimbalist/2021/01/16/the-ncaa-cant-make-up-its-mind-heres-some-help/?sh=5814827bb4eb Mark Emmert opposes idea to separate FBS football from NCAA: 'Couldn't disagree more', https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/30699394/mark-emmert-opposes-idea-separate-fbs-football-ncaa-disagree-more Dwayne Haskins Early Career and Release, ... Read More

By Bennett Liebman Cuomo Transcript on State of the State Arts, Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Cuomo Outlines 2021 Agenda, https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/video-audio-photos-rush-transcript-governor-cuomo-outlines-2021-agenda-reimagine-rebuild-rene-0 Schenectady Theater CEO on State of Performing Arts, https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/buffalo/ny-state-of-politics/2021/01/13/-they-have-nothing---proctor-s-theater-ceo-on-state-of-the-performing-arts-industry Musicians groups pan Cuomo's arts program, https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/new-york-elections-government/ny-cuomo-state-of-the-state-artists-freelancers-20210113-yzdejn2bajao7ppwvr7s5qpfdy-story.html New York to launch 'arts revival' performances, https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/theater_dance/cuomo-new-york-arts-revival/2021/01/12/1ede803a-550b-11eb-a817-e5e7f8a406d6_story.html The show will ... Read More

‘The Police Didn’t Know What Was Going to Happen’: 5 Photographers on What It Was Like to Document the Storming of the US Capitol — “[T]he uprising marked the first time since the British invaded during the War of 1812 that Washington was so overrun. The scene was documented by ... Read More

The coordinated moves by Silicon Valley to silence Donald Trump are having unintended consequences, but consequences that the legions of Big Tech lawyers must have thought through.  Setting aside the fact that they took down so many accounts so quickly on Twitter that they must have been working from a list ... Read More

Tapjoy, Inc. (“Tapjoy”), a mobile advertising company, settled FTC allegations that it failed to provide promised in-game rewards to consumers. Tapjoy operates an advertising platform that works within mobile games and offers in-game virtual currency to users who complete the activities of third-party advertisers (i.e. purchase products, sign up for ... Read More

Songwriters are beginning to realize that the government is forcing them to use The MLC, Inc. (financed by the streaming services) as their mechanical licensing collective for collecting and paying their mechanical royalties.  So now they are asking questions about when and how that payment is to be made, among ... Read More

This article was originally published on Food Navigator on January 13, 2021. If your company sells any vanilla-flavored food or beverage product, then you are probably aware of the innumerable class action cases that have been filed over the last 18 months attacking these products – 67 cases by our ... Read More

The first issue of Music & Copyright for 2021 is now available for subscribers to download. Here are some of the highlights. Ball starts rolling in the reform of the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act US Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property has ... Read More

Michael Conklin, Angelo State University, has published The Big Problem with the Small Penis Rule: Why It Does Not Limit Defamation Liability. Here is the abstract. The small penis rule is an informal strategy for limiting defamation liability for authors ... Read More

This article was originally posted in Food Manufacturing on January 6, 2021. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of putative class actions targeting the food and beverage industry increased in 2020 and show no signs of slowing down in 2021. The number of class actions filed against beverage companies in New ... Read More

Happy New Year to all. To kick off 2021, I’ve provided quick takes below on some of the bigger stories we’ll be watching WME v. WGA Just before Christmas, CAA closed a deal with the Writers Guild regarding phasing out of package commissions and partial divestiture of its ownership of ... Read More

By Eric Lanter Edited by Elissa D. Hecker Below, for your browsing convenience, the categories are divided into: Entertainment, Arts, Sports, Media/Technology and General News: Entertainment IRS Says Prince's Estate Worth Twice What Administrators Reported The IRS, in filings with the U.S. Tax Court, has made clear that it disagrees ... Read More

Douglas B. McKechnie, United States Air Force Academy, is publishing Government Tweets, Government Speech: The First Amendment Implications of Government Trolling in volume 4 of the Seattle University Law Review. Here is the abstract. President Trump has been accused of ... Read More