Matt Galsor

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Q: Let’s say I’m writing a script for a film on the life of Mister X, a public, historical figure. In the process of doing my research, I run into interesting details about the life of Mister X in a non-fiction book (let’s call the book The Real Life of Mister X), and I want to use some of these details for my story. Do I need to contact the writer of The Real Life of Mister X and ask for his permission?

A: You’ll be happy to know that facts are not protected by copyright. I’m the only entertainment lawyer to climb Everest. That’s a fact. But it’s not protected by copyright. You can use it in your script, free of charge and without my permission. The interesting details you discovered about Mr. X are nothing but facts about him that you can freely use. Continue reading the full story . . . »

Steve Smith

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Since reading Dracula when I was 12, I have wanted to be a vampire. I would be a good vampire, sucking the blood only from those evil people who deserved it. I would live forever and become very rich. Most importantly, girls would think I was hot. (There are no fat vampires; a diet of blood seems to keep them all very thin and beautiful.)

My 12-year-old ruminations on what it would mean to be undead were clearly not unique. It turns out that we all want to be vampires. Today, we have vampires living openly in our midst. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of vampires. And millions of people wanting to become vampires, which are the focal points of the most popular motion pictures, television shows and books in the entertainment marketplace today. Whether your iconic image is Edward from Twilight or Subject Zero from The Passage, it is cool to be a vampire.

Which raises all kinds of interesting legal questions (with proper praise for Alan Ball’s True Blood for most vigorously examining the social, political, and legal implications of a vampire-inhabited world).

Continue reading the full story . . . »

Ricardo Cestero

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Somewhere in Sun Valley earlier this month (where the nation’s media moguls met to celebrate yet another corporate boondoggle), someone must be paraphrasing FDR: “July 7, 2010, a date which will live in infamy.” For that day saw two multi-million dollar jury verdicts against media companies in favor of profit participants. In the first (and biggest), Celador Productions, the creators of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, won nearly $270 million in unpaid profit participations from Disney. Only hours later, Don Johnson won $23 million from Rysher for his 50% share of profits from the Nash Bridges (one wonders what, if anything, Cheech got). Coming on the heels of Alan Ladd’s appeal court victory over Warner Bros. in his profit participation case — about which all of our regular readers should now be experts — you can imagine the angst building in Hollywood. Continue reading the full story . . . »

Jesse Saivar

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Q: I’m a member of the WGA. I have a friend who’s just starting out as a producer and has an outline he really wants to develop. He’s got just a little bit of money (less than WGA minimums) to pay me to write the script, which I’m going to do in my off time just to help him out. My only concern is that I don’t want him to get in trouble with the WGA. Is that an issue?

A: I hate to get biblical on you, but I believe you’re a little too concerned about the potential splinter in your friend’s eye when you have a potential log in your own. I’m assuming that your buddy with a handwritten outline working out of his apartment is not a WGA Signatory. Since he has no contractual relationship with the WGA, there’s not much they can do to him. You, on the other hand, do have a contractual relationship with the WGA as one of its members. Continue reading the full story . . . »

Aaron Gafni

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The late George Carlin gave us many words to live by. Parents should never name their child Tucker. Redundancies like “true replica,” “young children” and “added bonus” should never be used. Anyone going slower than you is an idiot, but anyone going faster is a maniac.

Carlin also famously declared that of the roughly 400,000 words in the English language, there are seven words you can never say on television (nor can you write them on the Law Law Land blog). This “Filthy Words” monologue was the basis for a landmark 1978 Supreme Court case, FCC v. Pacifica Foundation, where the high court held in a narrow decision that the FCC had the authority to fine a radio station for playing a 12-minute recording of the monologue. Continue reading the full story . . . »

Elisabeth Moriarty

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You may recently have felt a great disturbance in The Force. It wasn’t the Palm Springs earthquake, or Lindsay Lohan’s courtroom meltdown. Nope, it was the “Star Wars Smackdown” instigated by George Lucas a few weeks ago.

Lucas is looking to “force” (I know, I know…) Hong Kong based laser manufacturer Wicked Lasers to change the design of a high powered laser product he feels looks too much like the famous (but fictional) lightsaber from his landmark films. His company, Lucasfilm Ltd., has sent a cease-and-desist letter threatening legal action if the laser company refuses to make appropriate alterations or remove the product from the market outright. Lucas apparently perceives the laser as a copyright threat; according to CNN, the letter challenges that “[i]t is apparent from the design of the Pro Arctic Laser that it was intended to resemble the hilts of our lightsaber swords which are protected by copyright.” Continue reading the full story . . . »