Entertainment and Sports Law

A look at moves among attorneys, law firms, companies and other players in entertainment law.

In recent years, the influx into Nashville, TN, of large law firms has resulted in an increase in Nashville entertainment law practices at these large firms. In this interview with Entertainment Law & Finance that follows, longtime Nashville entertainment lawyer Samuel D. Lipshie, a partner and head of the Media and Entertainment Practice Group at the Bradley law firm, discusses how this change has affected the culture of being an entertainment lawyer in Nashville.

Entertainment trade magazines called lawyer Joel Katz, who died in Atlanta in April at the age of 80, “one of the most powerful attorneys in the music business” who “ruled the music industry from Atlanta for decades.”

The recent boom in prediction markets has threatened to disrupt the multi-billion-dollar sports wagering industry, with prediction market operators claiming the ability to offer their platforms nationwide without the legal obstacles that bog down online gaming and gambling.

Notable recent court filings in entertainment law.

A look at moves among attorneys, law firms, companies and other players in entertainment law.

The VPPA may be nearly four-decades old and video-rental stores largely a thing of the past, but the rise of online content, streaming services and ancillary activities has brought with it frequent litigation based on the VPPA. The key challenge in these litigations is how to interpret the VPPA’s 1980s terms in light of today’s digital advances.

As artificial intelligence continues making inroads into the entertainment industry, AI vendor contracts are introducing new legal complexities that go beyond traditional “Software as a Service” (SaaS) agreements, often shifting significant risk onto customers.