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Federal Court Considers Blurry Lines Between Artist's Consultant and Business Manager Image

Federal Court Considers Blurry Lines Between Artist's Consultant and Business Manager

Stan Soocher

What happens when a business manager gets involved in a dispute with one of the artist’s other advisers? A recent example is the litigation between the longtime business manager for rapper Nelly and a longtime consultant who has provided a range of services to the artist that include marketing and promotion, managing Nelly’s touring business, and seeking endorsement deals.

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Fifth Circuit Rejects Majority 'Independent Economic Value' Test for Infringement Damages Image

Fifth Circuit Rejects Majority 'Independent Economic Value' Test for Infringement Damages

Stan Soocher

Most of the federal circuit courts that have addressed what qualifies either as a "compilation" or as a single creative work apply an "independent economic value" analysis that looks at the market worth of the single creation as of the time when an infringement occurs. But in a recent ruling of first impression, the Fifth Circuit rejected the "independent economic value" test in determining which individual sound recordings are eligible for their own statutory awards and which are part of compilation.

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Truth-in-Music-Advertising Law Provides No Private Right of Action to Music Groups Image

Truth-in-Music-Advertising Law Provides No Private Right of Action to Music Groups

Stan Soocher

As for the Truth-in-Music-Advertising law in this case of first impression, band-name rights holders will have to wait for state counsel to act in order to seek remedies provided by the statute.

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Hold On, I'm Suing: Artists' Protests over the Trump Campaign's Use of Their Music and What Some Courts Have Ruled in Similar Instances Image

Hold On, I'm Suing: Artists' Protests over the Trump Campaign's Use of Their Music and What Some Courts Have Ruled in Similar Instances

Stan Soocher

When artists take action over political-campaign settings, it's usually in the form of a cease-and-desist letter sent to a candidate's representatives. In some instances, artists file lawsuits, but to date there's been just a smattering of notable court decisions. This article provides a refresher on these rulings as well as a look at the recent lawsuit by the estate of Isaac Hayes over the Trump campaign's use of the classic soul song "Hold On, I'm Coming."

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NIL Regulation: Can the NCAA Recover and Advance Its Own Fumble? Image

NIL Regulation: Can the NCAA Recover and Advance Its Own Fumble?

Howard Mulligan

With a view toward injecting some modicum of clarity into the volatile arena of NIL, a plethora of legislation has been enacted at the state level and proposed at the federal level.

Features

Executive Producers' "Most Favored Nations" Clauses Could Be Applied to Walking Dead Series Producer's Profit-Participation Settlement   Image

Executive Producers' "Most Favored Nations" Clauses Could Be Applied to Walking Dead Series Producer's Profit-Participation Settlement  

Stan Soocher

Can the settlement of a lawsuit by one profit participant in a TV production be used to increase the contingent compensation provisions of other profit participants in the show?

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U.S. Supreme Court Hears Arguments on Whether Copyright Plaintiffs Can Reach Back More Than Three Years for Infringement Damages Image

U.S. Supreme Court Hears Arguments on Whether Copyright Plaintiffs Can Reach Back More Than Three Years for Infringement Damages

Stan Soocher

In a case of first impression, the Eleventh Circuit decided that a copyright plaintiff may recover damages that occur more than three years before a copyright lawsuit is filed.

Features

Content-Licensing Payment Dispute Involves Whether Fiduciary Relationship Was Created Image

Content-Licensing Payment Dispute Involves Whether Fiduciary Relationship Was Created

Stan Soocher

A recent New York federal court decision in a dispute between a broker that sublicenses program content and a broadcaster that sublicensed content from the broker considered the interaction of contract language and extra-contractual elements of the parties' relationship to determine whether a fiduciary relationship existed.

Features

Keeping Track of Developments in Cases That Pit Creative Content Against AI Programs Image

Keeping Track of Developments in Cases That Pit Creative Content Against AI Programs

Stan Soocher

2024 starts off with court decisions and procedural rulings that took shape in 2023 in lawsuits that were filed over the collision of creative content with generative AI programs. Most of the complaints allege copyright infringement and related claims prompted by the unlicensed copyright works that AI companies input into their AI programs.

Features

Ninth Circuit Focuses On Extrinsic Test In Ruling On Choreography Copyright Image

Ninth Circuit Focuses On Extrinsic Test In Ruling On Choreography Copyright

Stan Soocher

Reversing and remanding, the Ninth Circuit emphasized: "The district court's approach of reducing choreography to 'poses' is fundamentally at odds with the way we analyze copyright claims for other art forms, like musical compositions."

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