Entertainment Law Update Episode 160 – August/September 2023
The National Football League must pay more than $4.7 billion in class-action damages for overcharging subscribers of its “Sunday Ticket” telecasts, a California federal jury said on Thursday....more
Lewis Black is the latest comedian to sue the music streaming service Pandora for copyright infringement. Black is following on the heels of the Robin Williams and George Carlin estates, who sued the platform in February,...more
Calling it a “ball of confusion,” the Ninth Circuit recently considered a case involving the music of the Turtles, SiriusXM Satellite Radio, and whether royalties are owed under California copyright law for music dating prior...more
Well, today is the big day. If you’re reading this week’s installment of the Spotlight, it means that you survived the long and arduous journey of the name, image and likeness (NIL) era in college sports. Indeed, with the...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
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
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
The popular music app company Pandora Media Inc. has opened quite a musical box. It has been in litigation over what are known and loved as the “oldies.” Various record labels such as Capitol Records and Sony Music sued...more
So You Want Music in Your Video: 5 Things to Remember so You Don't Get Sued - Last month we received a call from a woman who made an unassuming video of her daughter's wedding and added her favorite song as the musical...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
Any child familiar with Aesop’s Fables can tell you that turtles are slow. The founding members of the 1960s rock band named after these half-shelled plodders, however, were anything but slow in moving to take full advantage...more