August was dominated by reports that Spider-Man would be leaving the Marvel Cinematic Universe following an impressive theatrical run of the newest movie “Spider-Man: Far From Home.” Spider-Man’s possible departure is due to Disney and Sony failing to reach an agreement on funding and revenue sharing for future Spider-Man films. The very concept of this […]
Last week, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge denied a motion for summary judgement submitted by Stranger Things creators, Matt and Ross Duffer, in a breach of implied contract suit filed by independent filmmaker Charlie Kessler. Kessler claims the Duffers stole the idea for their show after he pitched his own project to the brothers
As of April 15th, the European Union officially approved a controversial new Copyright Directive that has left members of the art and tech worlds fiercely divided. The Directive, which was narrowly approved by the European Parliament in a 348 to 274 vote last month, has now been given the green light by 19 out of
A group of retired NFL players and Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) settled a lawsuit this past week regarding the use of the players’ likeness in the Madden football games in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. While EA licensed current players’ image, the “historic teams” rosters in the game featured retired players
Ariana Grande’s “Sweetener” World Tour is not so sweet for the press photographers tasked with capturing her star power on stage. Major media outlets including The New York Times, Associated Press, and the Los Angeles Times have joined forces with the National Press Photographers Association to protest the pop star’s markedly restrictive photo policies. According
In the midst of three copyright infringement suits against Epic Games, creator of the celebrated Fortnite video game, the Supreme Court has announced a groundbreaking decision that has put all such litigation on hold. On March 4, SCOTUS unanimously ruled that copyright infringement suits cannot be filed until a copyright is registered. In light of
On Monday, the Supreme Court affirmed the 11th Circuit’s decision in Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corporation v Wall-Street.com, holding that a copyright owner may not file an infringement suit or seek other legal remedies until the Copyright Office registers their copyright. The unanimous decision resolved a circuit split on the issue of when a copyright
On Thursday, Judge Janis Sammartino of the Southern District of California rejected the affirmative defenses advanced by Conan O’Brien in a long-running joke theft lawsuit. The suit centers on four jokes that O’Brien told on his show Conanin 2015, which were allegedly stolen from the Twitter account of plaintiff Robert Kaseberg, a former comedy writer for
On July 17, 2014, Douglas Jordan-Benel sued Universal Studios, United Talent Agency and screenplay writer, James Demonaco, claiming the movie The Purge is based on his screenplay, Settler’s Day. Jordan-Benel alleges in his complaint that he submitted his screenplay for consideration to United Talent Agency around July 8, 2011, but the work was ultimately rejected.
Pharrell Williams has sent President Donald Trump a cease-and-desist letter for playing his song, ‘Happy’, without authorization at a rally. The move comes in the wake of the tragic shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. The letter penned by Williams’ lawyer, Howard King, states that “on the day of the mass murder of 11
Amazon Studios has settled a copyright dispute with Ana Mendieta’s estate over images in Suspiria, the highly anticipated Luca Guadagnino film set to be theatrically released in New York and Los Angeles this weekend. Mendieta’s estate filed suit against the studio in federal court in Seattle last month, claiming several images in the film were too
