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Media & Entertainment
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June 14, 2013
11th Circ. Finds Fla. Election Requirements Constitutional
The Eleventh Circuit on Friday upheld the constitutionality of Florida’s reporting and advertising disclaimers required from political action committees that hope to influence elections, finding that a district court didn’t err in finding the regulations acceptable in a ballot issue election.
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June 14, 2013
NY Gov. To Seek 4 New Casinos In Gambling Expansion Plan
Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Friday he would like to see four new casinos in New York state — up from three — in an initial expansion round as he seeks a deal with the legislature on a constitutional amendment to legalize table games like poker, roulette and craps in New York.
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June 14, 2013
Deals Rumor Mill: Vodafone, Siemens, KKR
Vodafone could pad its $9.6 billion buyout bid for Kabel Deutschland after the Germany company spurned the initial offer, while Siemens is looking for a way out of its 50-50 joint venture with Nokia that carries an estimated worth of $9.4 billion.
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June 14, 2013
Pa. Officials Want NCAA Penn State Suit In Mediation
Pennsylvania officials on Thursday asked a state court to place into mediation their lawsuit against the National Collegiate Athletic Association over sanctions levied against Pennsylvania State University stemming from the Jerry Sandusky child molestation scandal following the university’s request that both parties reach a settlement.
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June 14, 2013
GAO Reopens CIA Cloud Computing Bidding After IBM Protest
The Central Intelligence Agency shouldn't have given a $600 million cloud computing contract to Amazon.com Inc. because it didn't treat all bidders equally, the U.S. Government Accountability Office said in a decision released Friday granting an IBM Corp. bid protest.
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June 14, 2013
Gordon Ramsay's LA Restaurant Hit With Wage Suit
Gordon Ramsay Los Angeles LP and the celebrity chef's restaurant The Fat Cow were hit with a proposed class action Thursday in California state court filed by four former employees, who accused the employer of taking their tips and a series of other wage-and-hour violations.
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June 14, 2013
EQT Opts For $1B Springer IPO Over Proposed Buyout
German publisher Springer Science+Business Media Deutschland GmbH will proceed with an initial public offering expected to rake in about $1 billion, it said Friday, dousing speculation that private equity owner EQT Partners AB would instead go with a full buyout offer.
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June 13, 2013
Sprint, SoftBank Defend $22B Deal Against Dish Backlash
Sprint Nextel Corp. on Thursday stood by the sweetened $21.6 billion buyout offer SoftBank Corp. unveiled this week, after rival bidder Dish Network Corp. urged the Federal Communications Commission to demand a new analysis of the modified deal, which now includes a poison pill.
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June 13, 2013
Unpaid Conde Nast Interns Hit Co. With Wage Class Action
The parent company of Conde Nast Publications was hit with a proposed class action by former interns for W magazine and The New Yorker who claimed the company violated federal and state wage-and-hour laws by failing to compensate them for their work.
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June 13, 2013
Facebook Skirts Willful Infringement In 'Like' Button Row
A Virginia federal judge on Wednesday granted Facebook Inc.’s motion to dismiss a claim of willful infringement in a lawsuit accusing it of infringing two patents owned by Rembrandt Social Media LP, finding the complaint didn’t show Facebook had presuit knowledge of the patents.
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June 13, 2013
Fox Ruling Warns Cos. Of Pitfalls In Hiring Interns
As summer internship programs kick into high gear, a recent ruling that a pair of Fox Searchlight Pictures Inc. interns ought to have been classified as employees should remind employers to remain wary of the potential wage-and-hour dangers that go along with bringing on unpaid workers, attorneys say.
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June 13, 2013
WMG Can't Claim 'Happy Birthday' Copyright, Suit Says
A unit of Warner Music Group Corp. was hit with a proposed class action Thursday in New York federal court accusing it of claiming a bogus copyright for the world-famous song "Happy Birthday to You."
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June 13, 2013
NEC Accused of Flouting Aurora Set-Top Box Trademarks
Aurora Multimedia Corp. has accused Japanese tech giant NEC Inc. of wrongfully using its logos and software to sell its Internet-related television products and services in a lawsuit filed in New Jersey federal court Wednesday.
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June 13, 2013
Paramount Scores Sweet Win In 'La Dolce Vita' Rights Row
A California federal judge on Wednesday ruled that Paramount Pictures Corp. owned the U.S. rights to Federico Fellini’s iconic film “La Dolce Vita” while finding that a production company infringed Paramount's copyrights by licensing the film in the U.S.
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June 13, 2013
Redbox Insurer Disputes Coverage For Customer Info Fight
National Union Fire Co. of Pittsburgh, Pa., sued Redbox Inc. and Coinstar Inc. in Washington federal court Wednesday, claiming it isn't obligated to defend or indemnify Redbox in a putative class action alleging it illegally retained and disseminated customers' rental histories for marketing purposes.
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June 13, 2013
Bankrupt Atari Wins Approval To Dump Assets Bit By Bit
A New York bankruptcy judge on Wednesday approved Atari’s plan to sell off its assets piece by piece by the end of July, a plan Atari says represents the best opportunity to maximize asset value for the benefit of all stakeholders.
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June 13, 2013
Penn State Wants Pa., NCAA To Settle Row Over $60M Fines
Pennsylvania State University on Tuesday asked the state and the National Collegiate Athletic Association to settle a dispute over $60 million in sanctions levied in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child molestation scandal, emphasizing that it wanted to avoid being caught between the two sides.
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June 13, 2013
Greenberg Glusker Lands Veteran Entertainment Litigator
Greenberg Glusker Fields Claman & Machtinger LLP announced Monday that a veteran entertainment and IP litigator has joined the firm as a partner, adding to its presence in the interactive gaming and digital and mobile app areas.
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June 13, 2013
Gannett Doubles TV Holdings With $2.2B Deal For Belo
Gannett Co. Inc. said Thursday it plans to buy Texas television company Belo Corp. in a deal valued at $2.2 billion, nearly doubling its television holdings and making it the fourth-largest major network affiliate owner in the country.
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June 13, 2013
Deals Rumor Mill: Springer, TPG, Sinopec
BC Partners is closing in on a $4 billion acquisition of German academic publisher Springer in a deal that will likely wipe out plans for an initial public offering, while Sinopec wants a piece of a Russian-owned $20 billion liquefied natural gas project on the Arctic Yamal peninsula.
Expert Analysis
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Why 'Escape From Tomorrow' Likely Won't Make It To Theaters
"Escape From Tomorrow," a movie that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival this year, was shot on-site at Disney World without the permission or knowledge of The Walt Disney Co. Disney didn't file suit, but it appears that the strategy of silence has largely paid off up to this point, says Brent Lorentz of Winthrop & Weinstine PA.
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FCC Ruling Provides TCPA Guidance For Courts
The Federal Communications Commission’s long-anticipated ruling in the Charvat v. Echostar and U.S. v. Dish Network LLP matter is significant because it confirms that companies that do not exercise undue levels of control over their telemarketers or their call centers will not be held liable when those third parties violate the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, say attorneys with Locke Lord LLP.
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Viacom V. YouTube Provides Some Insight Into DMCA
Though many of the issues in Viacom International Inc. v. YouTube Inc. are still unsettled in light of the strong likelihood of additional appeal in the Second Circuit, the district court’s analysis provides a basic framework for the Southern District of New York’s interpretation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s safe harbor provisions, say attorneys with Latham & Watkins LLP.
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E-Discovery In The Cloud: Who Can Get Your Data?
Many lawyers are asking whether placing electronically stored information in the cloud could inadvertently waive the attorney-client privilege and whether the government or a civil litigant could obtain ESI directly from a cloud service provider. In answering these questions, there are a number of aspects of the cloud worth considering, say Timothy Broas and Matthew Saxon of Winston & Strawn LLP.
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5 Reasons For Optimism In The Venture Capital Community
Not every company can be the next Facebook. But thankfully, for many startups, generating one billion users is not the end goal, nor should it be. Enter “narrowcasting” — one of a few reasons to be optimistic about venture capital, despite the first quarter of 2013 being the slowest for fundraising since 2002, says David Kaufman of Thompson Coburn LLP.
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How To Use The New Trademark Clearinghouse
As the rollout of new Internet domains continues to become more complex, it is crucial for intellectual property owners to familiarize themselves with each step of the trademark clearinghouse registration process in order to have full control over their brand, says Jan Corstens of Deloitte.
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A Wake-Up Call For Video Game Developers
The extraordinary relief granted in the Fifth Circuit's recent decision in TimeGate Studios Inc. v. Southpeak Interactive LLC demonstrates that video game developers and publishers should seriously consider what terms and conditions they will agree to, and must do their best to ultimately comply with the language in a development agreement, says Sean Kane of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP.
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How Crowdfunding Could Impact Film Financing
The “Veronica Mars” Kickstarter campaign has created a paradigm shift in film financing with successful crowdfunding. While crowdfunding is still a largely untouched topic by the courts, it needs to be red-flagged as an area that is ripe for litigation, says John Stephens of Sedgwick LLP.
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FTC And SEC Are Schizoid On Social Media
The Federal Trade Commission's recent guidance on digital advertising disclaimers and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's new policy on corporate financial disclosures were presented by the agencies as ways to enable use of social media by corporations — but instead just make things much harder, if not totally impracticable, says Glenn Manishin of Troutman Sanders LLP.
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Far-Reaching Consequences Of NFL Concussion Litigation
Recently, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania heard oral arguments on the much-publicized In re National Football League Players' Concussion Injury Litigation. Though it is difficult to predict how the court will rule, whatever ruling it makes will have significant impact on the litigation, the law and the broader sports world, say attorneys with Squire Sanders LLP.