Social Media has now entered the courtroom...

For the entertainment industry I like to believe that the stickiest area in the business is entertainment law. We so often see people neglect that they are in a business and outright show no respect to all the legal matters that allows the business of entertainment to function.

In the course of enlightening myself on current issues in entertainment law I found that there is a wealth of information out there. I also realized that sometimes just listening to experts your able to understand that legal mumbo jumbo just a little better than beating yourself over the head with a book.

I found a couple podcast in which I was able to take away a plethora of information that I would like to share with you. In my research I found this common denominator that not only linked to different aspects of law but be a link to half of America. What’s that? “Social Media”

Within the podcast there was a range of topics from copyright infringement, royalties, IP Law, criminal law, and much more. For me it was mind blowing to see how a lot of these topics stemmed from social media with cases deriving from use of social media, digital download, to those well-known YouTube videos.

In the Lawyer to Lawyer podcast it was so overwhelming to see how research and statistics has began to prove that social media is not only a cause of legal issues like we see in entertainment law but how now social media has become the solution to solve cases.

Drawing your attention back to Entertainment Law social media has become the driving force behind fan generation, music & art distribution, among other things. What has me curious is to see how social media overtime could become the solution for a lot of entertainment legal cases. We’ve seen over the past couple of year with the rise of social media how vocal celebrities have become and wiling to share information.

At this point as aspiring entertainment lawyer it has me wondering what’s the future of litigation and for the entertainment industry are some of our most valuable tools also our biggest nightmare.

For more info here are links to the podcast:

Podcast 1: Episode 32- Lawyers, Libel, Logos and Lollipops

http://www.entertainmentlawupdate.com/

Podcast 2: Liability After Facebooks’s IPO

http://legaltalknetwork.com/podcasts/lawyer-2-lawyer/

Podcast 3: Torts Law Center Podcast

http://www.lexisnexis.com/community/downloadandsupportcenter/media/p/5.aspx

Industry Liabilities

The evolution of Aubrey Graham vs. the Superstar Drake

Jas Prince, the person responsible for introducing Drake to his Young Money family. Is at the center of a very messy lawsuit. Prince is battling Cortez Bryant whom he made a verbal agreement with to persuade Drake into signing a deal with young money and they together splitting the profits. Now that Drake has had much success Prince is stating that he has not received any profits in which he is owed. Bryant is the manager for rapper Lil Wayne and also part of the Young Money record label family.

Due to this verbal agreement they have not only forced other parties to become involved such as Drakes co-managers, label, but Prince and Bryant now have their own company’s business at jeopardy. This is a classic situation I think of an artist trusting people to lead them to opportunity without being aware or clear on what opportunity that person is seeking as well. Now funds are being held, contract renewals have been voided and Drake is in the middle of a battle in which he had no knowledge.

This case is also a great example of why when doing business in this industry verbal agreements mean nothing. If Bryant and Cortez would have established some form of an agreement that was legit they could have avoided this whole mess. Now they are in a court battle based on he said she said.

German Luggage Company battles a Hollywood Studio

German Luggage Company says that Marvel Studios is infringing on a product in which they own. The plaintiff for the company in the case, Rimowa GmbH says that their trademark is damaged.

The carrying case at the center if this court suit is one used in the movie “The Avengers” by the character Nick Fury played by Samuel L. Jackson. The Company’s issue is not the use of the case in the movie since it was authentic. The company is arguing that the infringement is on Marvels use of a replicated version for there Avengers box set packaging advertises at this years Comic Con convention in San Diego, CA.

I believe this could be a promising case for the luggage company. Since Marvel studios did indeed use their product freely in the movie and has no chosen to replicate it for profit that’s obvious grounds of trademark infringement.  Due to the impact that the Comic Con convention on products sales, if I was representation for Marvel I would work towards a settlement. This product is obviously valuable to their product. Possible agreeing to pay any damages to or profit loss to the company and I would even go as far as to recommend some percentage in profits. This way both companies can settle and also walk away cutting their losses.

Telemundo Drops 50 Vicky

Vicky Gutierrez is the former reporter/anchor for Telemundo station KVEA in Los Angeles, CA. Vicki has entered a lawsuit with Telemundo and parent company NBC Universal for what she claims was wrongful termination, retaliation and age discrimination.

Vicki is taking action after she was released from her position at the LA station and replaced by a much younger anchor. She stated that once she turned age 50 they let her go. Vicki also states that she had been a victim of workplace harassment in which she filed complaints for during her employment.

This is something I think many entertainment professionals are faced with. The media is truly saturated with images that they feel should reflect society. I think that in entering this business its something you have to consider your ending may not be when you decide but when the companies in which you promote do. I am not in any way saying that I agree with the network or Gutierrez. I will say that I think this a minor case to take to court. It’s one of those conflicts that comes with the territory and that’s for both parties rather discriminatory or not.