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Happiness and Sadness are Not Batman and James Bond
Over the summer, Disney and Pixar were sued by childhood development expert Denise Daniels over the film Inside Out. She claims that the film was based on her TV show, The Moodsters, and that she was uncompensated for her work. As reported by The Hollywood Reporter, there are some similarities between the two films as both conceptualize the emotions as anthropomorphic characters that have a distinct color associated with them. In both properties, happiness was personified as a yellow character, sadness as a blue character and anger as a red character. Both properties also portray these characters as living deep within a child’s mind and depict how they control […]
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UCLA Players Put Up 0 Points, 0 Assists, and 3 Steals in China
Three University of California: Los Angeles (“UCLA”) men’s basketball team players have been allowed to return home after being arrested in China for shoplifting. LiAngelo Ball, Cody Riley, and Jalen Hill were in Hangzhou, China to play an exhibition match against Georgia Tech, and while there, reportedly stole designer sunglasses from a Louis Vuitton store. The student athletes were caught and arrested on November 8, and the trio had to stay in China while their teammates flew home. The players were released and allowed to return to the United States on November 14 only after the intervention of the U.S. government. […]
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Jerry: Jonesing for a Fight
Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys, has made no secret to fellow owners, players, fans, and the general public that he is displeased with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. About two weeks ago, Jones threatened to sue the league if Goodell’s contract is extended. In response, fellow owners sent a letter to Jones, scolding him for “antics” that reflected “conduct detrimental to the league’s best interests.” The owners’ language signals to Jones that they may be willing to impose sanctions if his behavior were to continue. Possible sanctions could include fines, loss of draft picks, or even suspending Jones. Although suspension is […]
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DoJ Throws Wrench in AT&T – Time Warner Merger
Until last week, it was expected that AT&T’s pending $85.4 billion mega acquisition of Time Warner would close by the end of the year. After almost a year of review, however, the Justice Department has cast doubt on the deal. Late last week, in meetings with AT&T, the Justice Department pressured AT&T to sell Time Warner’s Turner Broadcasting division, which owns cable channels and most significantly CNN, or to divest the DirecTV satellite service — as a potential requirement to win government approval. Given the Trump administration’s anti-media agenda, in particular the President himself repeatedly hammering the cable channel CNN as […]
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“Mad Max: Fury Road” Director Furious Over Lost $7M Bonus
Warner Bros is being taken to court in Australia over breach of contract claims brought by George Miller. Miller claims that Warner Bros breached contract in denying him his $7 million bonus for “Mad Max: Fury Road.” Miller says that the company agreed to pay him the bonus in the event that he did not surpass their $157 million dollar budget. Although Miller believes that he met that criterion, Warner Bros is arguing that they are not required to pay the bonus because he did go over budget. Miller asserts that any amount spent over the budget was due to decisions […]
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CBS Argues that Remastered Pre-1972 Songs are New IP
The 9th Circuit heard oral arguments last week on whether or not recent digital remasterings of pre-1972 songs were fundamentally different enough from their original recordings to qualify as new intellectual property and thus be covered under Federal Copyright Law. In an appeal filed by ABS Entertainment last year, the company argues that the District Court erred when they granted CBS Entertainment federal copyright protection over their digital remastering of songs recorded before 1972. There has been a recent uptick in cases that revolve around copyright for songs that were recorded before 1972. Federal Copyright Law that only covers songs after 1972 allows […]
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Blocking Goodell’s Go-Ahead Contract Extension
According to Sports Illustrated, Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys, has threatened to sue the National Football League (“NFL”) and other NFL franchise owners. Specifically, he has threatened to sue the owners of the Atlanta Falcons, Kansas City Chiefs, New England Patriots, Houston Texans, New York Giants, and Pittsburgh Steelers, all members of the NFL’s compensation committee. Jones has made his lawsuit threat in light of the committee’s decision on November 2nd to extend NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s contract through to 2024. Jones was a non-voting member of the committee, which has full control over Goodell’s contract, and urged the […]
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GOP Tax Plan Doesn’t See Fun in Stadium Funding
In the latest tax reform proposal, private activity bonds – a standard tool to finance stadium construction for decades – have been placed on the chopping block. House Republicans released proposed tax reforms that would eliminate private activity bonds. Interest earned on private activity municipal bonds is tax exempt. It is estimated that the government could raise about $40 billion over 10 years by eliminating the exemption. Approximately three dozen professional sports stadiums have been financed with tax-exempt bonds since 2000. Proponents of using private activity bonds to support stadiums argue that stadium construction stimulates the economy, adds jobs, and improves […]
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A Small Claims Court for Copyrights?
Statutory damages for a willful copyright infringement for a single work can reach $150,000, but the average cost of litigating a copyright case is around $278,000. Even though copyright theft affects the majority of copyright owners, a small minority in reality enforce those rights and receive due compensation. As a potential solution, Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and Tom Marino (R-PA) have introduced the Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement (CASE) Act. The CASE act would create a Copyright Claims Board that, though not technically a court, would essentially adjudicate copyright infringement cases. Damages would be capped at $15,000 per infringed work and $30,000 […]
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Disney in Talks to Acquire 21st Century Fox Assets
As first reported by CNBC on November 6, the Walt Disney Company recently held preliminary talks with 21st Century Fox about buying its entertainment business, including the Fox movie studio, the FX cable network and the UK – based television service Sky. The potential asset acquisition may allow Fox to focus on its news and sport services, primarily run by Fox’s broadcasting network, Fox News or Fox’s sports holdings. The two companies have been talking over the last few weeks but are no longer negotiating. It’s uncertain whether these talks will lead to a deal, although the two sides may come […]
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The Cosby Show Sues over Unwanted Return to TV
Even though The Cosby Show has been pulled from broadcast, the show’s producers have filed a copyright lawsuit against BBC and Sugar Films for allegedly using a substantial amount of copyrighted material for a documentary called Bill Cosby: Fall of an American Icon, which depicts the sexual assault scandal that Bill Cosby was embroiled in these past few years. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the documentary in question has a run time of about 60 minutes, around 4 minutes of which was copyrighted material. Carsey-Warner alleges that the 8 audiovisual clips and the 2 musical cues from The Cosby Show were used without permission […]
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Online Sports Wagering? Don’t Bet On It
On October 30, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf signed House Bill 271, a gaming expansion bill that legalizes, among other things, online sports betting in Pennsylvania. Wolf’s signature comes a week after the state legislature passed the bill, which legalizes and regulates daily fantasy sports, online gambling, and sports betting. The bill includes a steep 36% state tax on all revenue generated from sports betting, and it allows for mobile and online sports wagering on both professional and collegiate sports. Mobile betting also means that patrons will have the ability to make wagers within stadiums. However, Pennsylvania has not yet overcome every […]