Entertainment Law Update Episode 160 – August/September 2023
One of the provisions included in the Consolidated Appropriations Act that President Trump signed into law on December 27, 2020 addresses the so-called “felony streaming” loophole in the Copyright Act and criminal code. ...more
In the music world, performance rights organizations (“PROs”) serve an intermediary function between songwriters and music publishers and third parties who perform the protected works publicly. Among the largest PROs in the...more
Main Quest: Does Your Gaming Stream Violate the Copyright Act? Streaming platforms, such as Twitch, Mixer and YouTube Gaming, are quickly becoming household names, with daily viewership rates that rival those of more...more
If a web server located outside the United States hosts video content that can be viewed by Internet users located in the United States, does a public performance result under U.S. copyright law?...more
Over the years, the Internet has become the basic foundational infrastructure for the global movement of data of all kinds. With continued growth at a phenomenal rate, the Internet has moved from a quiet means of...more
In a multi-jurisdictional dispute between a band and a satellite radio provider, the US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit adopted reasoning similar to that of the New York Court of Appeals (IP Update, Vol. 20, No. 3) in...more
In a unanimous October 26, 2017, decision, the Supreme Court of Florida concluded that Florida common law does not recognize an exclusive right of public performance in pre-1972 sound recordings. Thus, members of the band,...more
1. Registration of a song with a PRO does not provide any copyright protection.- The most common misunderstanding I encounter from songwriters is that registering their songs with one of the U.S. music performance rights...more
On December 20, 2016, the New York Court of Appeals (New York’s highest court) issued a landmark state copyright law decision, holding in response to a certified question from the Second Circuit in Flo & Eddie, Inc. v. Sirius...more
On December 20, 2016, the New York Court of Appeals, the highest court in the state, held that no common law public performance right exists for pre-1972 sound recordings. The issue of whether a common law public performance...more
During recent years, the Internet has become the basic foundational infrastructure for the global movement of data of all kinds. With continued growth at a phenomenal rate, the Internet has moved from a quiet means of...more
CBS recently secured a potential landmark victory that could benefit radio stations, streaming services, and satellite radio providers—many of whom have been mired in litigation for years with owners of sound recordings of...more
Republican Presidential hopeful Donald Trump is “Not Gonna Take It”. He recently received permission from Dee Snider to use Twisted Sister’s 1984 hit “We’re Not Gonna Take It” in his campaign. Trump sought permission after...more
It’s that time of year: costumes and candy, haunted houses and hayrides. And all those tricks and treats add up to a $7.4 billion commercial industry around the holiday, a figure that exceeds the annual revenue of the...more
This week, after a string of wins, two members of the classic rock group the Turtles suffered a setback in their lawsuit against satellite radio provider, SiriusXM (Flo & Eddie Inc. v. Sirius XM Radio Inc.)....more
January’s Central District of California ruling on Fox Broadcasting’s claims against the DISH Network clarifies some of the ambiguity surrounding second screen cross-device programming distribution and copyright infringement....more
Heading into this year’s Super Bowl party season, there are two things every lawyer should be concerned about. First, why can’t your team get it together? Second, what do you do if you are asked to explain to your friends and...more
The U.S. Copyright Act in 17 USC 106 specifically gives copyright owners the exclusive right to control “performances” of their works. 17 USC 101 defines public performance as including “transmission” of the work. In 17 USC...more
On June 25, 2014, the United States Supreme Court decided ABC v. Aereo, one of the more important (and most closely watched) copyright cases of the digital era. The Court’s 6-3 decision that streaming-TV startup Aereo...more
With the Supreme Court’s Aereo decision finally out, the digital industry is struggling with its impact, if any, on various products and services, particularly with regard to cloud computing. However, the Supreme Court...more
On June 25, the Supreme Court issued its much-anticipated decision in the case of American Broadcasting Companies, et al. v. Aereo, Inc. f/k/a Bamboom Labs, Inc., Case No. 13-461 (June 25, 2014). The case centered on Aereo’s...more
In American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. v. Aereo, Inc. (June 25, 2014, No. 13-461) 2014 U.S. Lexis 4496, the issue before the court was “[w]hether a company ‘publicly performs’ a copyrighted television program when it...more
Earlier this year, the Supreme Court of the United States agreed to hear a high-stakes copyright case that pitted the huge network television broadcast industry against Aereo, Inc., a small, obscure Internet...more
The Supreme Court of the United States announced an important copyright decision last Wednesday in American Broadcasting Cos. v. Aereo, Inc. (573 U.S. ____ (2014)). The 6-3 decision by Justice Breyer reversing the United...more
In a highly-anticipated decision, the Supreme Court last week released its decision in ABC v. Aereo, holding that the transmission of over-the-air broadcast signals by Aereo’s tiny antennas constitutes a “public performance”...more