Media & Entertainment

  • June 20, 2024

    'Jetflicks' Piracy Trial Results In 5 Convictions In Las Vegas

    Following a trial that stretched on for half a month, a federal jury in Las Vegas convicted a group of people who were accused of making more than $1 million running an illegal streaming website called "Jetflicks."

  • June 20, 2024

    Caltrans Tells FCC It's Against FirstNet Control Of 4.9 GHz

    California's Department of Transportation is adding its name to the list of public service entities lining up to tell the Federal Communications Commission that making AT&T's FirstNet the national manager of the 4.9 gigahertz safety band is a bad idea.

  • June 20, 2024

    Oprah Special Hiked Viacom Price, Archegos Trader Concedes

    An attorney for Archegos Capital Management LP founder Bill Hwang attempted Thursday to undercut testimony that the hedge fund boss had total control over his portfolio companies, getting a key cooperator to agree that ViacomCBS Inc.'s share price was at one point boosted by Oprah Winfrey's interview with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

  • June 20, 2024

    FCC Slams Bid In 6th Circ. To Put Net Neutrality On Hold

    The Federal Communications Commission told the Sixth Circuit on Tuesday it should pay no heed to a collection of net neutrality challengers arguing that "dire consequences" will ensue if the appellate court doesn't stop the agency from reinstating open internet regulations while the two sides argue the matter out in court.

  • June 20, 2024

    ACC Fights FSU's Stay Appeal In Media Rights Contract Suit

    The Atlantic Coast Conference has urged North Carolina's highest court to support a judge's decision to reject a bid by Florida State University to pause the organization's media rights lawsuit while a related action plays out in the Sunshine State.

  • June 20, 2024

    Madonna Mulls Sanctions Bid After Fans Drop 'Frivolous' Suit

    Attorneys defending Madonna, Live Nation and the Barclays Center against allegations that fans were "lulled" into buying tickets for a tardy show slammed the plaintiffs' unannounced dismissal of the "frivolous" case, telling a New York federal judge Wednesday they don't agree to bear their own costs and might seek sanctions.

  • June 20, 2024

    FCC Allows Top-4 Exception So Gray Can Sell Station

    The Federal Communications Commission has granted an exception to its rule prohibiting ownership of stations carrying more than one top-four network in a local market, allowing Gray Television to sell a Cheyenne, Wyoming, station as part of a larger deal.

  • June 20, 2024

    1st Circ. Says Song Royalties Go To Artists, Not Band Owners

    The First Circuit ruled that members of musical groups, not their owners or managers, are due royalties as featured "recording artists" under federal law.

  • June 20, 2024

    Vegas Papers Can't Pause Suit Amid Trim Appeal, Judge Says

    Rival Las Vegas newspapers won't see their acrimonious antitrust dispute placed on ice while the Ninth Circuit contemplates reversal of a partial dismissal order in the matter with no trial dates in place yet, a Nevada federal judge has determined.

  • June 20, 2024

    First Amendment Bars Models' Likeness Suit, Strip Clubs Say

    Three Philadelphia-area strip clubs facing a suit by Carmen Electra and other models over using their likeness without permission told a federal judge the plaintiffs' complaint is barred by the First Amendment because they are public figures "or limited purpose public figures."

  • June 20, 2024

    DLA Piper Adds 2 Entertainment Attys In NY From Reed Smith

    Two entertainment and advertising partners have left Reed Smith LLP to join DLA Piper, including the first woman to serve as the chief negotiator for the Joint Policy Committee, the bargaining representative for the advertising industry in negotiations for the multibillion-dollar commercials collective bargaining agreements with SAG-AFTRA and the American Federation of Musicians.

  • June 20, 2024

    EchoStar Says Customers Can Skip Junk Fees With Right Info

    Dish Network parent company EchoStar is defending early termination fees to the Federal Communications Commission, telling the agency that Dish's 2009 settlement agreement over deceptive charges can serve as a model for FCC billing guidelines.

  • June 20, 2024

    LA Boutique Adds Real Estate Pro As 4th Name Partner

    Boutique entertainment and business legal firm Freedman Taitelman & Cooley LLP is rebranding for the second time in less than a year — adding real estate and business attorney Stuart Liner to the front of the masthead.

  • June 20, 2024

    Snapchat Inks $15M Deal In Calif. Watchdog's Sex Bias Suit

    The parent company of Snapchat agreed to pay $15 million to end a California Civil Rights Department suit alleging it discouraged women from applying for promotions and failed to protect them from inappropriate sexual advances, according to a filing in California state court.

  • June 18, 2024

    Novant Pays $6.7M For Sharing Patient Data With Facebook

    A North Carolina federal judge on Monday gave the final seal of approval to a proposed $6.7 million deal resolving litigation alleging Novant Health Inc. shared sensitive patient data with Facebook, certifying a nationwide settlement class of roughly 1.3 million individuals.

  • June 18, 2024

    Ex-CBS Sports Chair Denies Fixing NFL Sunday Ticket Price

    The recently retired chairman of CBS Sports on Tuesday told a California federal jury considering multibillion-dollar antitrust claims against the NFL that his network didn't collude with the league to fix the price of the DirecTV Sunday Ticket television package.

  • June 18, 2024

    RR Donnelley Pays $2.1M To Settle SEC Claims Over Hack

    Marketing and communications giant R.R. Donnelley & Sons has reached a deal with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission to pay over $2.1 million to settle claims over a 2021 cybersecurity incident that stemmed from poor internal controls and disclosure failures, the agency announced Tuesday.

  • June 18, 2024

    IPhone Buyers Want Canadian Data In Amazon Antitrust Case

    Apple Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. must be forced to turn over Canadian sales data as part of a lawsuit accusing the pair of hatching an anticompetitive agreement to choke third-party sales, a group of iPad and iPhone buyers told a Washington federal court.

  • June 18, 2024

    No Reason To Move Net Neutrality Suits To DC Circ., ISPs Say

    Nearly a dozen industry groups are calling on the Sixth Circuit to reject an effort by the Federal Communications Commission to move a raft of lawsuits over the FCC's net neutrality rules to the D.C. Circuit.

  • June 18, 2024

    9 Firms Vie To Lead Suit Over Ad Tech Co.'s Microsoft Ties

    Pomerantz LLP, Levi & Korsinsky LLP and several other firms have filed competing bids to lead a proposed shareholder class action alleging that shares of ad tech company Perion Network declined nearly 40% after its strategic partner Microsoft Bing "unilaterally" changed its search advertising pricing.

  • June 18, 2024

    Megan Thee Stallion Escapes IP Suit Over 'Savage' Song

    A Manhattan federal judge concluded Tuesday that rapper and songwriter Megan Thee Stallion did not rip off music from a hip-hop producer to create her hit song "Savage" in 2020, saying the plaintiff failed to show that she and the other defendants had access to his composition or that the two songs are substantially or strikingly similar.

  • June 18, 2024

    Anticompetitive Rules Hinder BEAD Fund, Critic Claims

    The success or failure of the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program lies in the "devilish details," according to one free-market think tank, which says that rules encouraging rate regulation and favoring "gold-plated" fiber technology could soon "cause havoc" if oversight is not rigorous enough.

  • June 18, 2024

    6th Circ. Asks Who's A 'Consumer' In Meta Data Sharing Case

    Sixth Circuit judges questioned how a decades-old federal privacy law aimed at protecting people's video rental history applies to website users, as one customer argued Tuesday that the court should revive claims that Paramount unlawfully shared his data with Meta, Facebook's parent company.

  • June 18, 2024

    Blackstone Plans Takeover Of Japan's Infocom In $1.7B Deal

    Blackstone said Tuesday it is planning to take Japanese digital comic distributor Infocom private in a deal that marks its largest private equity deal ever in Japan, worth 275 billion yen ($1.7 billion). 

  • June 18, 2024

    Democrats Punt On Spectrum Bill, Claiming GOP 'Obstruction'

    A Senate Democratic leader again delayed consideration of a bill Tuesday to renew the Federal Communications Commission's spectrum auction powers, saying the holdup was instigated by Republicans on the Senate Commerce Committee.

Expert Analysis

  • The Future Of BIPA Insurance Litigation After Visual Pak

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    A recent Illinois appellate court decision, National Fire Insurance v. Visual Pak, may have altered the future of insurance litigation under the state's Biometric Information Privacy Act by diametrically opposing a prominent Seventh Circuit ruling that found insurance coverage for violations of the act, say attorneys at Jenner & Block.

  • Tenn. Law Protecting Artists From AI Raises Novel Issues

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    Tennessee recently enacted a law that extends the right of publicity protection to individuals' voices in an attempt to control the proliferation of artificial intelligence in the music industry, presenting fascinating questions about the First Amendment, the fair use doctrine and more, say attorneys at Davis Wright.

  • Consumer Privacy Takeaways From FTC Extraterritorial Action

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    With what appears to be its first privacy-related consent agreement with a non-U.S. business, the Federal Trade Commission establishes that its reach is extraterritorial and that consumer internet browsing data is sensitive data, and there are lessons for any multinational business that handles consumer information, say Olivia Greer and Alexis Bello at Weil.

  • Series

    Whitewater Kayaking Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Whether it's seeing clients and their issues from a new perspective, or staying nimble in a moment of intense challenge, the lessons learned from whitewater kayaking transcend the rapids of a river and prepare attorneys for the courtroom and beyond, says Matthew Kent at Alston & Bird.

  • This Earth Day, Consider How Your Firm Can Go Greener

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    As Earth Day approaches, law firms and attorneys should consider adopting more sustainable practices to reduce their carbon footprint — from minimizing single-use plastics to purchasing carbon offsets for air travel — which ultimately can also reduce costs for clients, say M’Lynn Phillips and Lisa Walters at IMS Legal Strategies.

  • Discord Stock Case Toss Means Little For Fraud Defendants

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    A Texas federal court’s recent dismissal of fraud charges related to a "pump and dump" scheme on Discord is an outlier after the U.S. Supreme Court scrapped the right-to-control theory of fraud last year, and ultimately won't deter the government from pursuing routine securities prosecutions, says William Johnston at Bird Marella.

  • Back Labels In False Ad Cases Get Some Clarity In 9th Circ.

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    Courts in the Ninth Circuit have recently delivered a series of wins to advertisers, making clear that any ambiguity on the front of a product's package can be resolved by reference to the back label — which guarantees defendants a powerful tool to combat deceptive labeling claims, say attorneys at Patterson Belknap.

  • Weisselberg's Perjury At Trial Spotlights Atty Ethics Issues

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    Former Trump Organization executive Allen Weisselberg’s recent guilty plea for perjury in the New York attorney general's civil fraud trial should serve as a reminder to attorneys of their ethical duties when they know a client has lied or plans to lie in court, and the potential penalties for not fulfilling those obligations, say Hilary Gerzhoy and Julienne Pasichow at HWG.

  • Practicing Law With Parkinson's Disease

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    This Parkinson’s Awareness Month, Adam Siegler at Greenberg Traurig discusses his experience working as a lawyer with Parkinson’s disease, sharing both lessons on how to cope with a diagnosis and advice for supporting colleagues who live with the disease.

  • The Merger Cases That Will Matter At ABA Antitrust Meeting

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    While the American Bar Association's Antitrust Spring Meeting this week will cover all types of competition law issues in the U.S. and abroad, expect the federal agencies' recent track record in merger enforcement to be a key area of focus on the official panels and in cocktail party chatter, say attorneys at Freshfields.

  • Cos. Should Prepare For Foreign Data Transfer Regulations

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    A new regulatory regime designed to protect U.S. sensitive data from countries of concern may complicate an already intricate geopolitical landscape and affect even companies beyond the data industry, but with careful preparation, such companies can endeavor to minimize the effect on their business operations and ensure compliance, say David Plotinsky and Jiazhen Guo at Morgan Lewis.

  • Why Incorporating By Reference Is Rarely Good Practice

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    The Federal Circuit’s recent ruling in Promptu Systems v. Comcast serves as a reminder that while incorporating by reference may seem efficient, it is generally prohibited by courts and can lead to sanctions when used to bypass a word count limit, says Cullen Seltzer at Sands Anderson.

  • Series

    Playing Hockey Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Nearly a lifetime of playing hockey taught me the importance of avoiding burnout in all aspects of life, and the game ultimately ended up providing me with the balance I needed to maintain success in my legal career, says John Riccione at Taft.

  • Opinion

    High Court Should Settle Circuit Split On Risk Disclosures

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    The U.S. Supreme Court should grant the petition for writ of certiorari in the Facebook case to resolve a growing circuit split concerning when risk disclosures can be misleading under federal securities laws, and its decision should align with the intent of Congress and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, says Richard Zelichov at DLA Piper.

  • For Lawyers, Pessimism Should Be A Job Skill, Not A Life Skill

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    A pessimistic mindset allows attorneys to be effective advocates for their clients, but it can come with serious costs for their personal well-being, so it’s crucial to exercise strategies that produce flexible optimism and connect lawyers with their core values, says Krista Larson at Stinson.

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