“Battleship” Movie Featuring Rihanna Makes $170 Million

Posted by on May 15, 2012 in Art, Business Transactions, Commercial Transactions, Entertainment, Film, Music, News | 0 comments You may have read this title and said quietly to yourself…what movie named “Battleship” featuring Rihanna? You may also be thinking… isn’t Rihanna a singer? Well, there is a perfectly good explanation why you don’t know what movie we are referring to. The movie “Battleship” has been released in countries around the world,with the exception of the U.S. It is not...
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How Much Are Paparazzi Photos of Celebrities Really Worth? $600,000? $1,500,000?

Posted by on Apr 12, 2012 in Art, Business Litigation, Copyright, Entertainment, Film, Intellectual Property, Music, News, Sports, Television | 0 comments Paparazzi photo or not, a photographer has an automatic right of ownership in the photos he takes the minute he takes them. This right is called a copyright. A company called Mavrix essentially takes photos of celebrities and, thus, owns a copyright in many of these photos. Mavrix Photo is an agency that calls itself the “premier source for celebrity images and photo-journalism.” This...
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Google Takes a Stand in MPAA Lawsuit Against Hotfile

Posted by on Mar 27, 2012 in Art, Business Litigation, Business Transactions, Commercial Litigation, Commercial Transactions, Copyright, Entertainment, Film, Intellectual Property, Music, News, Television | 0 comments The Motion Picture Association of America has filed a summary judgment motion in its lawsuit against Hotfile,which could allow the court to decide fairly soon whether or not Hotfile will be held liable for encouraging and facilitating copyright infringement. Many consumers may be unfamiliar with the Hotfile website and more familiar with past websites like Napster and Limewire. Similar to Napster...
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Lawsuits Threaten Jay-Z’s Fortune More than a Decade After the Release of Jay-Z’s “Big Pimpin” Musical Hit

Posted by on Mar 26, 2012 in Art, Copyright, Entertainment, Film, Intellectual Property, Music, News, Television | 0 comments It may take you a while to recall the song “Big Pimpin” by Jay-Z, but it is likely that even if you do not listen to rap music, you have heard it in a movie, a television sitcom, on the radio, or as background music in a store. This song was a major hit for Jay-Z and likely one of the songs that put him on the map to stardom more than ten years ago. Many thirty-somethings can probably recall...
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Band Rush Threatens Legal Action Against Radio Host Rush Limbaugh for Use of their Music

Posted by on Mar 23, 2012 in Art, Copyright, Entertainment, Intellectual Property, Music, News, Trademark | 1 comment Things aren’t looking up for conservative radio show host Rush Limbaugh. With so many of his advertisers refusing to continue advertising on his radio show, the band Rush’s latest cease and desist letter to Mr. Limbaugh can’t be helping matters. The band Rush and Mr. Rush Limbaugh are not in any way associated with one another and that is how the band Rush wants to keep...
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IMDb Refuses to Delete or Change Actors’ Ages, Despite Talks with SAG and AFTRA

Posted by on Nov 7, 2011 in Art, Employment, Entertainment, Film, Music, News, Sports, Television | 0 comments Earlier last month, an anonymous actress filed a million dollar lawsuit against the IMDb (“Internet Movie Database”) website claiming that the database violated her constitutional right to privacy by accessing and providing personal information, specifically her age. It may come as no surprise that the entertainment industry is taking the recent lawsuit very seriously and has been in talks...
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