Southwestern
law School
Los Angeles

Donald E. Biederman
Entertainment & Media Law Institute

Washington Monitor

Congress increases penalties ten-fold for indecent broadcasts

FCC refuses to set aside $550,000 fine penalizing CBS for airing Janet Jackson’s bare breast during 2004 Super Bowl

Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act permits songwriters to treat songs as capital assets, so copyright assignments will be taxed at lower capital gains rates

Take-Two Interactive and Rockstar Games settle FTC charges they failed to disclose that Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas contained nude female characters and sex mini-game

In the News

EMI Music settles New York Attorney General’s “payola” investigation

Recent Cases  

Delaware Supreme Court affirms dismissal of shareholder derivative suit against Walt Disney Co. complaining about company’s hiring and firing of Michael Ovitz and payment to him of $130 million in severance

Right of publicity claim by recording artist Debra Laws against Sony Music, complaining that Jennifer Lopez’s recording and video “All I Have” sampled Laws’ recording “Very Special” without Laws’ consent, is preempted by federal copyright law, Court of Appeals affirms

Producer Jean Doumanian is entitled to edit six Woody Allen movies for network television, despite Allen’s objection that proposed edits would affect films’ artistic integrity and entertainment value

Comical references to “BUFU” in movie “How High” did not infringe or dilute FUBU clothing trademark

Claim that Michael Chabon’s novel “Summerland” was copied from movie treatment is shown to be fraudulent, because treatment referred to Palm Pilots repeatedly but was allegedly submitted to Disney almost a year before Palm Pilots were introduced

Departments

Entertainment Lawyer News: 
· Kenneth Suddleson joins L.A. office of Foley & Lardner

In the Law Reviews

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