Earlier this month, at the annual Coachella Music Festival, concertgoers were stunned to witness the performance of a lifetime, or should we say, an afterlife-time.  At the festival, nearly 100,000 fans witnessed a holographic Tupac Shakur, who died in 1996, performing alongside Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg.  Shakur appeared on stage, performing two songs and [...]

While SOPA and SOPA 2.0 have been getting all the attention, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is still very much alive, and the Second Circuit recently handed down an important decision interpreting the statute. Unfortunately for YouTube, which had been granted summary judgment, the decision revives the litigation, and the decision has been called a [...]

To a group of movie investors, Keeper of the Pinstripes sounded like an ideal business venture. Capitalizing on nostalgia for old-timers Yankee baseball, the film was to depict the “interior and exterior of the ‘old’ Yankee stadium [for one] final public appearance,” and tell the story of “a mysterious room hidden within the depths of [...]

The critical debate over film versus television rages on. It’s a fight ’til the death. Who will be the winner? Stay tuned…

Junie Hoang , a previously nameless B-movie actress, has filed a “Jane Doe” lawsuit against the Internet Movie Database and its parent, Amazon.com, for disclosing her age, 41, in an online profile.  Ms. Hoang claims her career was damaged by the revelation that she is older than she looks.

The infamous family Corleone is involved in a legal dispute that surprisingly has nothing to do with whacking gangsters in an Italian restaurant or threatening a movie producer with a decapitated horse.  On February 17th, Paramount Pictures filed a lawsuit in the Southern District of New York against Anthony Puzo, the son and executor of [...]

The Naked Cowboy does not have a monopoly on near-nude, cowboy-themed minstrelsy. Or so decided U.S. District Judge Barbara Jones in the Naked Cowboy’s most recent attempt to protect his brand.  The wannabe lone ranger’s lawsuit against the CBS soap opera “The Bold and The Beautiful” was thrown out because the Judge found that the [...]

We’re not surprised to learn that The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences owns several Oscar-related trademarks.     Thank you to staffer Kimberly Lehmann for the link!

After a Judge ruled that the heirs of the late Jack Kirby, creator and co-creator of Marvel Comics superheroes including the Fantastic Four, X-Men, the Hulk and more, have no legal claim to the copyrights of those characters, artists are trying to form a boycott of the Avenger’s movie over the treatment of co-creator Jack [...]

Leading up to the Super Bowl, many viewers have already proclaimed that they will not be watching Madonna’s halftime performance.  A small sample set can be found here, here and here.  One website proceeded to list 46 better ideas than Madonna for the halftime show.  However, one person that will definitely be watching the performance [...]