Jun 30 2009

Supreme Court OKs Cablevision’s “Remote” DVR

Published by Wayne Josel at 3:25 pm under Fair Use, Litigation, Television, Video

Cablevision can move forward with its plans to move its digital video recording service into the cloud, thanks to the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the broadcast industry’s appeal of a decision granting summary judgment in favor of Cablevision.

While consumer DVRs have been used for years, Cablevision sought to launch a service for the remote storage of shows recorded by consumers.  Cablevision’s argument in favor of such service was that, as long as consumers were still in control of the recording, playback and deletion process, the location of the hard drive on which the content was stored didn’t matter.  Broadcasters disagreed, however, claiming that by archiving and retransmitting the content, Cablevision was engaging in copyright infringement. Continue Reading »


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Jun 26 2009

You (Publicly) Play, You Pay: ASCAP After Ringtone Money and the Impact on Your Deals

Published by Matthew Syrkin at 9:55 am under Intellectual Property, Mobile, Music, News, Technology

ASCAP is suing AT&T for failure to pay public performance royalties for their sale of musical ringtones. According to ASCAP’s opposition to AT&T’s  recently filed motion, ASCAP rebukes AT&T’s claim that a ringtone is no different than a song downloaded from iTunes and therefore does not require the payment of performance royalties. In response, ASCAP argues that when a ringtone plays to signal an incoming call, the public performance right is triggered in two ways—once when the ringtone is digitally transmitted to the phone (via the streaming transmission/delivery) and again when the song is actually played on the consumer’s phone to the public. According to the filing and a statement released by ASCAP, AT&T, and not the consumer, is then directly liable and responsible for the corresponding public performance royalties because the consumers’ phones are on AT&T’s network, and AT&T controls the entire series of steps that allow and trigger the ringtone performance based on incoming calls. Continue Reading »


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Jun 14 2009

News Round-up — Week ending June 12, 2009

Published by admin at 2:43 pm under Internet, Music, News, Technology

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Jun 09 2009

Deadline for Safe Harbor Certification under Anti-Child Pornography Regs Fast Approaching

Published by Dan Schnapp and Wayne Josel at 10:14 am under E-alert, Regulations

For years, the adult entertainment industry has been required to maintain records verifying the age of all performers.  However earlier this year, new regulations implementing § 2257 and § 2257(A) of the Child Protection and Obscenity Enforcement Act went into effect which impose similar record keeping requirements on many mainstream media companies.  However, the regulations contain a “safe harbor” to help minimize the effect of the regulations by enabling mainstream media companies to file a certification with the Attorney General’s Office.  The deadline for this important certification is June 16th, 2009.  Continue Reading »


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Jun 08 2009

Univision Heads to Court to Keep Televisa TV Shows Off the Internet

Published by Clark Siegel at 2:18 pm under Litigation, Television

Univision, the leading Spanish language television network in the US, licenses a substantial portion of its programming from Televisa, an operator of Spanish language television networks in Mexico and throughout the world.  Now, in a case that highlights the potential conflicts that can arise when television programming is made available online, Univision has filed suit against Televisa in the US District Court in Los Angeles claiming that by distributing its shows on the Web, Televisa is in breach of its agreement with Univision which granted Univision exclusive rights to certain Televisa programming in the US. Continue Reading »


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