HHR New Media, Entertainment and Technology Group

This first-of-a-kind, publicly-available, law firm-hosted, CLE-accredited Webinar will focus on the critical issues that are confronted in game transactions. Our team will address issues such as:

• Structuring relationships between developers and publishers and the ownership issues that arise in development agreements, including work-for-hire, joint ownership and cross-licensing issues;
• Protecting against developer default or insolvency, including the pros and cons of source code escrow arrangements and the applicability of Section 365(n) of the Bankruptcy Code;
• How clearances and consents have become critically important with the increased incorporation in games of real world elements (cities, buildings, people, etc.) and third party IP (e.g. music, video clips, characters, logos, etc.), with an examination of recent case law (Kirby v. Sega and Grand Theft Auto/Pig Pen); and
• Strategies to maximize revenues from online and mobile games, including sponsored exclusive features and content, “in-game” ads, syndicated games, and tiered subscriptions.

The one-hour Webinar will also feature “live chat” functionality to enable viewers to ask questions and comment on the presentation in real-time.  Presentation materials will be available for download.

The Webinar will be held on September 16, 2009 from 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm EDT.  To register, click here.

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 »

What’s new in digital media?   Subscribe to digitalhhr.com to receive today’s news:

• Some good news for Yahoo for a change as its stock jumps 7% on a report that Jonathan Miller, former CEO of AOL, is talking with private and sovereign equity funds about funding a buy-out of the company.  More details here.
• Maybe some good news for the economy??  E-commerce sales jumped 15% on Cyber Monday, according to a report by comScore.
• MySpace is rolling out a new service to enable members to look at video clips embedded on their home pages via their mobile phones.  The service will be free to users, with MySpace bundling the video clips with ads.  More information here.
• Goldman Sachs is looking into launching an online bank.  The move appears to be one of the initiatives that GS is undertaking to expand its asset base now that it is a bank holding company.  Here’s the report from the Wall Street Journal detailing the news.

What’s new in digital media?   Subscribe to digitalhhr.com to receive today’s news:

• The New York Times has a piece on Facebook Connect, a new initiative to extend the web’s most popular social networking service to other web sites. 
• The Huffington Post just closed a new round of financing totaling $25 million, bringing the company’s valuation to $100 million.  More info here. 
• Digital music sales will continue to grow, reaching 41 percent of total sales by 2013, according to a report by Jupiter Research.  However, overall growth will continue to drop from annual sales of $10.2 billion to $9.8 billion.
• A new study on web video viewing habits may help marketers refine their ad strategies.  According to TubeMogul, only 16.62% of folks who click on a three-minute video will watch it all the way through.  While this sounds like a nail in the coffin for post-rolls, marketers seeking “true believers” (i.e. those sitting through an entire video) may see the post-roll as a cost-effective approach.
• Microsoft and Blockbuster collaborate to deliver video on demand to mobile devices.  Click here for more info. 

The Mobile Marketing Association (“MMA”), a non-profit industry trade group, recently announced the publication of a set of revised Global Mobile Measurement Ad Currency Definitions for the measurement of mobile media advertising currency, including: Ad Impression, Streaming Video Advertising, Rich Media Ad Impression and Click Measurement. The MMA does not intend for these “definitions”, which read more as contextual recommendations for how to assess mobile ad currency, to serve as a set of guidelines for mobile ad counting, but expects them to serve as the foundation and basis for discussion for subsequent mobile ad guideline development. The definitions were developed in close collaboration with the Media Rating Counsel (a non-profit association made up of leading television, radio, print and Internet companies), as well as ADObjects Inc., Amobee Media Systems, AOL LLC, DoubleClick, iO global limited, Isobar, Microsoft, The Coca-Cola Company and Yahoo! Continue Reading »