Rachel Valadez

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Summit Entertainment, LLC, the studio to blame for our country’s current obsession with all things vampire, and the reason why “pale, unshowered and moody” is the look that all teenage boys seem to be sporting these days, is suing clothing manufacturer B.B. Dakota, Inc. for having had the good (or bad) luck of having one of its jackets chosen to adorn actress Kristen Stewart (a.k.a. Bella Swan) in the original Twilight film.

“What?” you might be asking yourself. “How can that be?”

Well, my dears, let me explain. Do the litigation thing long enough and you’ll find you can’t be surprised by much anymore. Continue reading the full story . . . »

Rachel Wilkes Barchie

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If you live in the Hollywood area like this blogger, you’ve no doubt spent time at that Disneyland-esque outdoor mall, the Grove. Hitting the shops, grabbing a bite, seeing a movie, and inevitably, listening to the ubiquitous Frank Sinatra music being blasted through every speaker. (Hearing Sinatra music will now forever be associated in my mind with shopping.)

But the Grove can’t play that Sinatra music (and thereby create that amazing Pavlovian response in its shoppers) without paying up. Indeed, with certain exceptions, the Copyright Act requires any business — be it mall, boutique, restaurant, bar, gym, skating rink, or bowling alley — to pay licensing fees to “publicly perform” copyrighted songs. Although the term “public performance” might conjure up the mental image of Ol’ Blue Eyes’ doppelganger crooning “Come Fly With Me” in front of Banana Republic (if only!), the meaning of the term is much broader and includes not only live performances, but also recordings or broadcasts.

Now if you’ll excuse me, that reminds me, I think there’s a sale at Nordstrom… Continue reading the full story . . . »

Ken Basin

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Oh, the halcyon days of the summer of ’07! Your kids (or you) were enthralled with their first chance to read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Your 401(K) balance probably had an extra zero or two on the end of it. The “steroid era of baseball” was a mere virtual certainty, rather than a documented fact. None of us had ever heard of a collateralized debt obligation or credit default swap. And I, but a baby lawyer, was enthralled with this crazy new lawsuit filed by Viacom against Google, alleging that Google was itself responsible for $1 billion worth of copyright infringement on its recently-acquired YouTube service. And oh, how the world has changed in these last three years! Teenage vampires have supplanted teenage wizards, you can safely assume that the slugger in your kid’s little league was juicing, we’re all experts on the vagaries of inventing nonexistent wealth with inscrutable financial instruments and then destroying it with other inscrutable financial instruments, and the Viacom lawsuit…well, that’s still going. Continue reading the full story . . . »

Matt Galsor

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Q: How do I attach, benefit, and protect myself with a script brought to my attention to help with funding?

A: My second child was born recently. A precious, fragile, adorable miracle. It’s moments like this that make you re-focus on what really matters in life. The spotlight of clarity turns brightly on, your eye lashes are taped to your forehead, and you up and see what’s at the core of it all: money. Babies are expensive. Just one year at some Westside pre-schools costs more than four years of college tuition cost me. All you need is love? That’s cute. Tell this to a hungry baby, and the baby will laugh in your face while dialing child protective services. Money can’t buy you love? Maybe not buy love, but it certainly can lease it for you. Of course, I’m exaggerating. Money is not all that important, if you have a lot of it. And clearly the people who brought you this script don’t have a lot of it. Continue reading the full story . . . »

Aaron Moss

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Is it just me, or has there been a larger-than-usual number of right of publicity complaints filed lately by celebrities against advertisers? Among others, we’ve seen Lindsay Lohan’s action against E*Trade andHulk Hogan’s lawsuit against the Post cereal company. In each of these cases, the primary legal issue is whether the celebrity’s identity, or “persona,” has actually been used by the advertiser. This month brought an even more straightforward right of publicity action involving the use of an Albert Einstein photo in a print ad for General Motors. What’s amazing about this one is that, not only did the advertiser not get permission to use what is clearly Einstein’s likeness, but that it placed Einstein’s head on the body of a shirtless underwear model. Which all leads me to wonder: is our bailout money going to pay for this? Continue reading the full story . . . »

Jesse Saivar

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Q: 12+ years ago a colleague came to me with a high concept logline for a TV series. I created the characters and most of the bible, even wrote a pilot. Through some bad decisions on his part, we went with a terrible production company that managed to sink the idea… (I know this sounds like I am laying all the blame at his door, but I had no say on who we went with for development.) As of today the project is still unproduced and not in development. I have no contract with anyone regarding this material… I am also a prose writer and have thought the idea would be a good book series, and might even serve as a backdoor pilot. I do not want his input on writing a book… What do I owe him on this possible venture?

A: You may be shocked to know that bad decisions in Hollywood aren’t monopolized by the mouth breathing reality show stars dragging their knuckles down Sunset Boulevard looking for the paparazzi. In fact, at any Clippers game, you’ll see plenty of successful Hollywood types. So don’t get down on your colleague or even yourself. The key is to recognize where you went wrong. Continue reading the full story . . . »