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Media & Entertainment
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May 22, 2013
Anti-War Journalists Demand Details Of FBI Surveillance
Two California journalists demanded that the Federal Bureau of Investigation turn over details of its “threat assessment” investigation of their online foreign policy magazine Antiwar.com on Tuesday, claiming the agency has ignored their Freedom of Information Act requests.
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May 22, 2013
MGM Says ThyssenKrupp Must Defend Elevator Accident Suit
MGM Resorts Mississippi Inc. filed a declaratory relief action in federal court Tuesday seeking to force ThyssenKrupp Elevator Corp. to provide it with a defense to a premises liability suit over an elevator accident at its Gold Strike Casino & Resort that allegedly injured three people.
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May 21, 2013
Developers That Razed Beastie Boy Home Sued For $6M
Mortgage brokerage Silo Capital LLC on Tuesday sued the developers of two Manhattan buildings in New York court, arguing they violated the terms of a $6.2 million mortgage by demolishing one of the buildings, a historic gay rights site and the former home of Beastie Boy Adam Horovitz.
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May 21, 2013
Facebook Rapped Over Shady Use Of Eminem Song
The music publisher for rap icon Eminem sued Facebook Inc. and its advertising agency Monday, alleging they improperly sampled music from Eminem's hit song “Under the Influence” in a recent Web ad touting the social media giant's new smartphone app.
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May 21, 2013
Ex-Digital Domain CEO, Directors Hit With Investor Suit
Two investment funds on Friday sued the former CEO and several executives of Digital Domain Media Group in New York state court, accusing them of withholding key information about the company’s rocky financial position before its initial public offering in 2011 and subsequent bankruptcy last year.
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May 21, 2013
Kanye West Wasn't Allowed To Sample Song, Funk Band Says
Members of 1970s-era funk band Bloodstone on Monday sued Universal Music Group Inc. for copyright infringement, alleging the company didn't have the right to license their music to rappers T.I. and Kanye West who sampled the band's song in the 2003 track “Doin' My Job.”
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May 20, 2013
EEOC Sues Book Distributor Over Severance Restrictions
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Monday hit Baker & Taylor Inc. with a suit in Illinois federal court, accusing the book distributor of forcing employees to sign unlawfully broad and unenforceable releases in order to be eligible for severance pay.
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May 17, 2013
Falcone, Execs Wrongly Forced Out Casino Co. CEO, Suit Says
Hedge funder Philip Falcone and two other executives involved in a Vietnam resort developer were hit by a lawsuit Thursday in New York state court over claims they forced out the development company's CEO through a wrongful administrative leave.
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May 15, 2013
Bergstein Says Aramid Schemed With Friend To Extort Millions
California film investor David Bergstein on Tuesday hit Aramid Entertainment Fund Ltd. with a suit accusing executive David Molner of scheming with a troubled New Jersey businessman to extort millions from Bergstein and shift blame for $60 million stolen and misappropriated from Aramid to the investor.
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May 15, 2013
MTV Viewer Accuses Viacom Of Sending Spam Texts
Viacom Inc. was hit Monday with a proposed class action accusing it of violating the Telephone Consumer Protection Act by sending consumers promotional text messages after they voted by phone for their favorite nominee during the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards.
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May 14, 2013
Hasbro Sues WB Over 'Dungeons & Dragons' Film Rights
Hasbro Inc. filed a copyright lawsuit in California federal court on Monday in an effort to halt a new Warner Bros. Pictures-produced Dungeons & Dragons movie, arguing that the production company behind the planned project lost the sequel rights after its 2000 D&D movie.
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May 14, 2013
Dick Wolf's Ex Wants $5M From Troubled Accounting Firm
The former wife of "Law & Order" creator Dick Wolf launched a $5 million suit in New York on Friday claiming that a management firm recently forced to cough up $51 million to writer Patricia Cornwell also overbilled her and disastrously fumbled the arrangement of a lease.
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May 14, 2013
Exec Says 'Tyrant' Forced Him Out Of Jennifer Lopez's Co.
A former executive at Jennifer Lopez's Nuyorican Productions Inc. filed a breach of contract suit in California state court Monday alleging a Hollywood veteran “with a long history as a 'tyrant'” forced him out of the production company.
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May 14, 2013
Reader's Digest Says Ex-Workers Misused Business Info
The Reader's Digest Association Inc. on Monday launched a suit in New York bankruptcy court, alleging that three former employees have unfairly diverted business from the bankrupt media company and improperly exercised control over its estate assets, including proprietary business information.
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May 13, 2013
NHL's Rough-And-Tumble History Will Color Concussion Suits
A Friday lawsuit accusing the National Hockey League of failing to warn deceased player Derek Boogaard about the long-term health risks of head injuries could kick off a torrent of litigation against the NHL, but attorneys say that hockey’s lack of involvement in concussion research and its tolerance for fighting could prove to be game-changers for the league.
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May 13, 2013
Firms, Trump Targeted In $1B Row Over Investment Losses
Real estate magnate Donald Trump and big law firms including Nixon Peabody LLP and Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP were targeted Monday in a $1 billion battle by Holocaust survivors and others over an investment scheme by the former promoter of a failed Trump hotel in Florida.
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May 13, 2013
Music Publisher Sues Over Rights To 'Flintstones' Theme Song
A lawsuit filed Thursday in Miami pits a Florida-based record label against a California seller of digital record downloads in a copyright ownership dispute that has bumped the theme from "The Flintstones" and other classic cartoons from Apple's iTunes Store.
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May 10, 2013
Producer Sues WWE, Wrestler For Posting Violent Interview
The World Wrestling Federation harmed producer Andrew Green when it aired a video in which wrestler Big Show unleashed his violent persona and physically assaulted Green during a profanity-laced post-match interview, according to a lawsuit removed to Arizona federal court Friday.
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May 10, 2013
App Designers Lifted Data Transfer Patents, Suits Say
“Smurfs' Village” developer Capcom USA Inc. and other game makers were sued in Texas federal court Thursday, becoming the latest targets of frequent patent litigator Lodsys Group LLC over allegations that their app games violate two data communication patents.
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May 10, 2013
Ex-CEO Raided Entertainment Co.'s Assets, RICO Suit Says
Entertainment company ValCom Inc. launched suit in New Jersey federal court Friday accusing its ousted former president and CEO Vince Vellardita and other top brass of defrauding ValCom out of millions of shares in violation of the Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act.
Expert Analysis
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When Rights Of Publicity Trump 1st Amendment
An important practice tip that flows from the Third Circuit's opinion in Ryan Hart v. Electronic Arts Inc. is that talismanic invocation of the First Amendment does not resolve the legal problem of balancing that amendment with competing rights such as the right of publicity, says Ronald Katz of Manatt Phelps & Phillips LLP.
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The Starstruck Medical Causation Trend
In the technical sense, medical causation answers whether an accused substance brought about some alleged disease. But rarely are the central causal allegations in major toxic torts purely courtroom affairs — publicity and politics now drive the litigation, with plaintiff verdicts begetting more publicity, says James Sabovich of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP.
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Righthaven V. Hoehn: Bad News For Copyright Trolls
In its recent decision in Righthaven LLC v. Hoehn, the Ninth Circuit made clear that courts must look beyond labels in agreements and evaluate the substance of the rights actually assigned in order to determine whether an assignee has standing to pursue a claim for copyright infringement, say Benjamin Marks and Elisabeth Sperle of Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP.
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Rise Of The Machines — Predictive Coding Goes Mainstream
The pros of using predictive coding far outweigh the cons. Given the heavy pressure on law firms and in-house counsel to reduce discovery costs, as well as the Justice Department's recent stance on the subject, it appears predictive coding will continue to emerge from the obscure world of legal technology to the mainstream of legal practice, say Michael Moscato and Myles Bartley of Curtis Mallet-Prevost Colt & Mosle LLP.
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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.