The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit this month held that the California Resale Royalties Act (“CRRA”) – a state statute that provided visual artists with ongoing downstream royalties for sales of their works occurring after the initial sale – is invalid as preempted by federal copyright law. The court, in Close v.

Don’t Negotiate Your Own Deals. In an ideal world, you would never negotiate your own deals. The first reason for this is obvious – if you’re a creative or an executive, you have to operate in multiple different capacities and wear a lot of different hats. An experienced professional negotiator – whether lawyer or agent

Nearly two years ago we wrote about a California case involving the alleged removal or alteration of copyright management information (“CMI”) in the context of real estate Multiple Listing Service (“MLS”) software.  Stevens v. CoreLogic, Inc. has since winded its way up to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which ruled last

If you’ve checked your email at all in the past month, you’ve likely been inundated by messages with titles like “Privacy Policy Updates.” These updates come en masse in the wake of the European Union’s new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which regulates the processing of personal data relating to individuals in the EU. While

The U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona in Lundin v. Discovery Communications ruled that a defamation suit brought by a reality television star against the network and producers of a reality show was not barred simply by virtue of an exculpatory “Assumption of Risk” provision containing a waiver of all claims.  Significantly, the

As of January 1, 2018, Assembly Bill 168, a new California law prohibiting employers (including movie and television studios) from asking potential employees for their salary history, went into effect. The new law prohibits the following: (1) Relying on the salary history information of an applicant for employment as a factor in determining whether to

As the world becomes more familiar with blockchain, people and companies continue to turn to the rapidly adopted technology to solve problems that were previously seen as just the costs of doing business. Over the past few years, in addition to serving as the backbone for headline-grabbing digital cryptocurrencies, the blockchain ledger has been used

Copyright infringement claims from photographers and image licensing companies have become increasingly common with the widespread use of easily accessible digital content on the Internet and in social media.  Photo copyright owners discover these claims en masse by way of image recognition software, and often pursue them using high-volume contingency fee-based law firms, claiming that

As the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements and their effects continue to unfurl, Hollywood is utilizing legal mechanisms via entertainment contracts to implement and supplement the changing norms, from “morals provisions” to “inclusion riders.” What are commonly referred to as “morals provisions” have a long history in the entertainment industry, but in recent years, have been

Last week the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California’s ruling of fair use in Oracle America, Inc. v. Google LLC, and held that a verbatim and non-transformative taking in the presence of an actual or potential licensing market fatally undermined the defense.