Sports Law

[This post first appeared on Morning Consult. The US Supreme Court will hear oral argument in the Google v. Oracle case on October 7] Google’s appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court of two Federal Circuit decisions in Oracle’s favor is turning into the most consequential copyright case of the court’s term — if not ... Read More

Eric P. Robinson and Morgan B. Hill have published The Trouble with "True Threats," at 8 UB Journal of Media Law & Ethics 37 (2020). Here is the abstract. In the midst of prevalent abusive language online, the U.S. Supreme ... Read More

By Bennett Liebman Study Shows Steep Revenue Plunge for Theatres, Some Hope for 2021, https://www.americantheatre.org/2020/09/30/study-shows-steep-revenue-plunge-for-theatres-some-hope-for-2021/ Just 20% of New York theater created by people of color, study finds, https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2020/sep/30/new-york-theater-shows-broadway-study Commentary, How LA's Small Theatre Community is Fighting for Its Life, https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2020-09-30/la-small-theater-community-covid-closures-virtual-festival Mellon Foundation to Provide $5 Million to Aid Black ... Read More

WWE Headed to Trial for Copying Wrestler’s Tattoos for Video Game — “On Saturday, an Illinois federal judge handed her partial summary judgment by determining that WWE and Take-Two Interactive Software, the publisher of the WWE 2K series of video games, had indeed copied her work. Now the question for a jury is ... Read More

Remember when Spotify bought Joe Rogan’s podcast and signed him to deliver futures? Big money, big press release. Big chuckles in some quarters, why? Welcome to the world of artist relations, Mr. Ek. Here’s a suggestion. When you sign an artist who you know is controversial going in, expect…you know…controversy. ... Read More

Louisiana State University has let us know of the sudden death of Martin Johnson, dean and professor at the university's Manship School. The dean passed away in his sleep last night. His wife Sherri, a professor in the History Department, ... Read More

Entertainment Law Update Podcast Episode 125 - 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

La-Vaughnda A. Taylor Edited by Elissa D. Hecker Below, for your browsing convenience, the categories are divided into: Entertainment, Arts, Sports, Media/Technology, and General News: Entertainment Batiste v. Lewis (5th Cir.) New Orleans jazz musician Paul Batiste sued hip-hop duo Macklemore and Ryan Lewis for copyright infringement, saying that the ... Read More

I was pleased to moderate a panel on TikTok’s situation for the Music Business Association with an all-star panel of experts. You can access our voluminous panel materials here including the panelists biographies. The following is my opening statement followed by the panel outline with some page number cross references ... Read More

Carys J. Craig, Osgoode Hall Law School, and Bob Tarantino, Dentons Canada LLP, are publishing 'An Hundred Stories in Ten Days': COVID-19 Lessons for Culture, Learning, and Copyright Law in the Osgoode Hall Law Journal. Here is the abstract. In ... Read More

Richard Ashby Wilson and Molly K. Land, both of University of Connecticut School of Law, are publishing Hate Speech on Social Media: Towards a Context-Specific Content Moderation Policy in the Connecticut Law Review. Here is the abstract. For all practical ... Read More

By Bennett Liebman Ruth Bader Ginsburg gave her life to the country -- and her heart to the performing arts, https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/theater_dance/ruth-bader-ginsburg-love-of-washington-thyeater/2020/09/19/161cf53e-fa85-11ea-89e3-4b9efa36dc64_story.html Remembering Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, by Edward Gero, https://dcmetrotheaterarts.com/2020/09/19/remembering-justice-ruth-bader-ginsburg-by-edward-gero/ Ruth Bader Ginsberg Loved The Arts. Artists Respond to Her Death With Love, Fear, Anger and Action, https://newyorktheater.me/2020/09/19/ruth-bader-ginsberg-loved-the-arts-artists-respond-to-her-death-with-love-fear-anger-and-action/ Proposed NYC ... Read More

“It is so ordered” – A Look Back at Justice Ginsburg’s Copyright Legacy — Last Friday, Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away after a lifetime of trailblazing legal service, including the last 27 years as Supreme Court Justice. Part of her tremendous legacy includes being one of the Court’s leading voices ... Read More

Silvia Scalzini, Luiss Guido Carli University Department of Law, is publishing The New Related Right for Press Publishers: What Way Forward? in Handbook of European Copyright Law (Eleanora Rosati, ed., Routledge, 2020) (Forthcoming). Here is the abstract. Following the entry ... Read More

By Tin-Fu (Tiffany) Tsai When entering into a contract, it seems counterintuitive to picture how it will end. It is important to prepare for this possibility in the negotiation process. Every contract not carefully thought out is a litigation waiting to happen, and the current COVID-19 pandemic is just one ... Read More

The new head of the Copyright Office is Shira Perlmutter.  Shira was already a very accomplished copyright lawyer when I first met her at the Fordham international copyright gathering in 1999.   She gave a very polite but rapier-like takedown of one Andrew Bridges who was being very…well…Andrew Bridges about something.  ... Read More

By Eric Lanter Edited by Elissa D. Hecker Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Has Died The nation mourns for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, perhaps one of the most well-known justices to ever sit on the United States Supreme Court. Her death "instantly upended the nation's politics in the middle of an ... Read More

By Bennett Liebman When Will Long Island Theaters Reopen?, https://www.newsday.com/entertainment/theater/long-island-theaters-fall-1.49095540 On the Anniversary of 9/11, Lincoln Center Awakens With Hope, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/11/arts/table-of-silence-9-11.html How to Birth a New American Theater, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/11/theater/how-to-change-theater.html Leading live theatre through a pandemic The Nonprofit Journal Project, https://www.secondwavemedia.com/features/nonprofit-journal-project-090920-regina-spain.aspx Challenged to examine their White bias, some theater companies are ... Read More

Promoting Progress: Celebrating the Constitution’s Intellectual Property Clause — “Copyright, to me, is a friend to all authors and users. It is here to enhance our lives and experiences and to promote the progress of our nation overall. This Constitution Day, I raise a glass to copyright and echo James Madison’s views ... Read More

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press is hiring immediately for a new legal fellow position that will expand its capacity to better identify, support, and address the legal needs of journalists of color, newsrooms led by people of ... Read More

The Latest episode of my Entertainment Law podcast, Entertainment Law Update, is now available for your enjoyment. Listen here, or subscribe and download in your favorite podcast listening app.  Show notes are located at www.entertainmentlawupdate.com/125 AMC TO TAKE OVER SHUTTERED THEATERS FALL OUT FROM CONSENT DECREES CONTINUES IN APPELLATE RULINGCentury Theater Owner’s Negotiation ... Read More

The Law Commission of Ontario has published Defamation Law in the Internet Age: Final Report (March 2020). This is the Final Report of the Law Commission of Ontario’s (LCO’s) Defamation Law in the Internet Age project. The LCO’s project examined ... Read More

Eric Goldman, Santa Clara University School of Law, has published How Section 230 Enhances the First Amendment in the American Constitutional Society Issue Brief (2020). Here is the abstract. This Issue Brief explores how Section 230 interacts with the First ... Read More

By Angela Peco Edited by Elissa D. Hecker Below, for your browsing convenience, the categories are divided into: Entertainment, Arts, Sports, Media/Technology, and General News: Entertainment Kevin Spacey Accused in New Lawsuit of Sex Offenses In a lawsuit filed in New York Supreme Court in Manhattan, two men accuse Kevin ... Read More

[This post first appeared on MusicTech.Solutions] There is a long line of copyright infringement cases that demonstrate how hard it is to right a situation that starts out wrong. In addition to TikTok’s copyright problems which it is frantically trying to buy its way out of, TikTok also has a ... Read More

Leaves The Hollywood Reporter; will continue to practice entertainment/tech law; writes at jhandel.newsLOS ANGELES (September 8, 2020) – SAG-AFTRA has engaged entertainment/technology attorney and journalist Jonathan Handel as an outside Special Counsel to the union, effective Sept. 1, to work on special projects and cutting-edge issues.Handel brings a deep familiarity with ... Read More

By Bennett Liebman Ben Brantley, Take a Bow, https://www.nytco.com/press/ben-brantley-take-a-bow/ New York City can't rebound without Broadway, and Broadway's road back is uncertain, https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/theater_dance/new-york-city-cant-rebound-without-broadway-and-broadways-road-back-is-uncertain/2020/09/07/f3933444-e939-11ea-970a-64c73a1c2392_story.html Fauci: We won't be able to sit in theaters until a year after an effective coronavirus vaccine is created, https://www.businessinsider.com/fauci-we-wont-go-in-theaters-until-year-after-vaccine-2020-9 Theater district restaurants eye reopening after indoor ... Read More

How can we pay for creativity in the digital age? — “Every post on Twitter or TikTok is an easy, cost-free path to discovery for an upstart comedian, actor, or cinematographer. In ‘The Death of the Artist: How Creators Are Struggling to Survive in the Age of Billionaires and Big ... Read More

Michael Goodyear, University of Michigan Law School, is publishing Is There No Way to the Truth? Copyright Liability as a Model for Restricting Fake News in volume 34 of the Harvard Journal of Law & Technology. Here is the abstract. ... Read More

The latest issue of Music & Copyright is now available for subscribers to download. Here are some of the highlights. Eddy Grant hits Donald Trump with copyright infringement claim over misuse of Electric Avenue US president Donald Trump has upset a number of musicians by using their music as part ... Read More