On March 19, 2013, the Supreme Court ruled, in Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, that the First Sale Doctrine trumps a copyright owner’s importation rights. Kirtsaeng came to the United States from Thailand to study at Cornell University. He […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Disney has a new Disney princess, Princess Leia. Disney purchased Lucasfilm from George Lucas for approximately 4.1 billion dollars. While this is not the biggest purchase Disney has made, lagging behind Pixar and Fox Family, it is certainly a hefty […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
First, there was Paris. After jumping onto the bad-girl scene with a DUI in 2006, the hotel heiress’ record includes reckless driving, driving with a suspended license, possession of marijuana and – later – of cocaine, and a 23-day stint […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Music, characters, and scripts have all been known to cause copyright infringement issues for movie companies. Most movie goers think movie companies own their own company logo. Surprisingly this is not the case for Millennium Films. Shopping for a new […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Lionsgate has been hit with a copyright infringement lawsuit for music that was included in the documentary “More Than a Game.” The documentary follows LeBron James and his teammates through their high school basketball careers. The infringement issue comes from […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Fictional Prelude It’s a balmy August night in Los Angeles. Nathan Parada, the “Paris Hilton Burglar,” sits alone in his apartment at a plastic kitchen table. There is a highway 20 feet from his front door. The waves of roaring […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
SPOILER ALERT!!! Mike Tyson is known for rash behavior. (That wasn’t the spoiler.) So when he tattooed his face back in ’03 I was certainly shocked, but I wasn’t really surprised. Similar cries for help have had the same effect […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
As many artists are reluctant to pursue legal action, it is not uncommon for an individual or organization to get away with using an artist’s copyrighted work without obtaining a license to do so. “It’s often assumed, rightly, by the […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Last month, Deborah L. Cohen writing for the ABA Journal, profiled Elizabeth Kelley, a criminal defense attorney in Cleveland who is hitting the airwaves to speak to listeners about criminal issues specifically as they relate to celebrities. Listeners tune in to her show, Celebrity […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
As you will recall from my post two weeks ago – “The Dame is Dead, Long Live the Dame” – our beloved Elizabeth Taylor leaves behind a massive estate. Her assets on hand to be divided are sizeable, estimated at […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…