HHR New Media, Entertainment and Technology Group

Mobile apps have blossomed from nothing into an expanding multi-billion dollar industry in just a few years.  Just last week, the millionth app went on sale somehere in the world.  And the industry is projected to continue to grow despite tough economic times. 

A great deal of this growth stems from the increased access that children have to devices that are capable of supporting mobile applications, such as smart phones and iPads.  So perhaps it is not unexpected that the mobile app industry has started to attract some negative press, mainly from Congress on behalf of parents concerned about violent content and privacy issues. 

In an effort to preempt Congress from stepping in to regulate mobile apps, two industry groups, the Entertainment Software Rating Board (“ESRB”) and the CTIA (a wireless industry trade association), recently announced a voluntary rating system to help parents to make informed decisions about whether or not a given mobile application is appropriate for their children.  The ESRB has considerable experience in this realm, as they have been in the business of rating computer and console video games since 1994. Continue Reading »

It is no surprise that the move to the cloud is in full swing. New methods of content distribution and consumption, coupled with the widespread proliferation of IP-enabled consumer devices, are driving the public’s relentless desire for “any content anywhere”.  The success of Netflix, Hulu, Amazon on Demand, Flickr, and the emergence of novel content authentication and delivery standards like the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem’s (DECE) Ultraviolet exemplify the entertainment industry’s investment in and increased reliance on cloud-based distribution platforms and business models. Now, as music makes a similar move to the cloud with the recent emergence of Amazon CloudDrive, Apple’s iCloud and GoogleMusic, stakeholders across all forms of entertainment have officially ent ered the equation. But while cloud integration continues to gain speed in the foreground, a host of new legal issues are emerging in the background as the convergence of new cloud-based storage mechanisms and channels of distribution with entertainment content continues to usher in novel copyright questions for stakeholders to grapple with. At present, the legal questions currently surrounding digital lockers and the “cloudification” of entertainment content are focused primarily on the balance between copyright holders’ exclusive rights to reproduce and publicly perform their works and consumers and service providers ability to make lawful use of such content through emerging technologies, in each instance, without directly or secondarily infringing copyright holders’ rights. Continue Reading »

Turntable.fm is the recently launched online music service that caught the attention of the music industry, music-loving consumers and digital media commentators.  The service enables users to become DJs in a virtual music club divided into multiple rooms, each with enough space for five DJs and an audience of listeners.  The DJs take turns playing songs to the entire room, pulling from a wide catalog that Turntable.fm licenses through MediaNet.  Users then interact with each other, rating the last song played and discussing the music in an in-room chat.  In theory, this interaction guides the flow of the other DJs and helps to shape future music played in the room.

As unique as the service is though, it appears that many of its features were designed and implemented to enable Turntable.fm to operate as a “non-interactive” service under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”), similar to an internet radio station, thus avoiding the need for direct licenses from the music labels.  For Turntable.fm, the distinction could mean the difference between sustaining a viable business or joining a long line of digital music services that were unable to survive because of the burden of paying license fees to the labels.  While it is too early to determine if this strategy will be challenged and/or whether it will ultimately prevail, Turntable.fm’s service clearly raises some unique legal issues. Continue Reading »

A recently filed complaint is sending shock waves through the application developer community.  On May 31, 2011 Lodsys, LLC filed a complaint against seven application developers for iOS, Apple’s mobile operating system.  Lodsys seeks an injunction and treble damages for willful infringement of two of its patents (U.S. Patent Nos. 7,620,565 and 7,222,078) that are directed to systems and methods for providers of products and/or services to interact with users of those products and services to gather information from those users and transmit that information to the provider.  The wrinkle here is that Apple itself already has licensed the patents in dispute, and it contends that its license agreement with Lodsys extends to third party application developers.  Continue Reading »

Apple recently revised its App Store Review Guidelines to remove some of the most controversial rules governing subscription apps and in-app purchases.  The changes come just weeks before the June 30th deadline by which developers had to bring their existing apps into compliance with the in-app purchasing rules announced in February.  Continue Reading »