BIT PARTS

Malpractice Suit to Continue. The New York Supreme Court, Sullivan County, has decided that a legal malpractice suit can proceed against the firm Proskauer Rose. Plunket v. Hart, 185202 (Jan. 24). The malpractice and breach-of-contract action was filed by Andrea Plunket, the administrator of the literary properties of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, after a Manhattan federal court ordered her to pay $135,521 in attorney fees and costs for bringing what the federal court concluded was an objectively unreasonable copyright and trademark infringement suit against the estate of Doyle's daughter. Proskauer Rose had unsuccessfully argued standing, forum and joinder of parties issues on behalf of Plunket in the federal case. The Sullivan County court found that Proskauer Rose's argument that Plunket could have repleaded her federal suit was too speculative to permit dismissal of the malpractice action. ' Jurisdiction Over Kazaa. The US District Court for the Central District of California has ruled that Sharman Network Ltd. ' the Kazaa peer-to-peer file-sharing software owner organized under the laws of the island of Vanuatu and principally operating in Australia ' is subject to specific personal jurisdiction in California. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. v. Grokster Ltd., 01-09923 (Jan. 9). The district court issued its ruling in litigation involving Grokster, Streamcast and Kazaa software that allows the free Internet distribution of content files. Sharman argued that it hadn't purposely availed itself of doing business in California because it didn't know the identity of the people who downloaded its software nor where those people resided. But the district court noted, 'Sharman essentially does not dispute that a significant number of its users ' perhaps as many as two million ' are California residents. ' Second, Sharman does not dispute that the distribution of its software is an essentially commercial act.' Meanwhile, on Jan. 27 Sharman filed a countersuit charging the record and movie industries with attempting to monopolize digital downloading. ' Reviewer Not Reachable. The US District Court for the Eastern District of New York has held that an Illinois-based book reviewer who posted his reviews on Amazon.com wasn't within reach of a defamation and copyright infringement suit filed against him in New York by a book author. Hammer v. Trendl, 02-2462 (Jan. 18). The district court noted, 'Simply posting book reviews on a Website that can be read by New York Internet users does not demonstrate the type of purposeful activity in New York sufficient to support the exercise of personal jurisdiction.' ' Book Release. A Music Business Primer by Diane Rapaport. Published by Jerome Headlands Press/Prentice Hall. Covers, among other things, creative rights, publishing, music licensing, talent agents, concert promotion, record companies and the audio industry.