2015 year in review - Entertainment Law Update

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SHOW NOTES

Santa Claus is Coming to Town ruling

In October , as we reported in Episode 67 of the show… the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that rights to “Santa Claus is Coming to Town,” the all-time most performed holiday song, will revert to the heirs of J. Fred Coots.

Happy Birthday Copyright

THIS CASE SETTLED LAST WEEK: A settlement was reached last week in the class action claim that the lyrics to “Happy Birtday to you” are in the public domain.

Summary from episode 66. Mentioned in episodes: 42, 44, 46, 58, 62, 66

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/dec/10/happy-birthday-to-you-song-public-domain-warner-chappell-relinquish-copyright

Order: http://www.scribd.com/doc/282431790/HBD-Summary-Judgment-Order

Lenz v. Universal (Dancing Baby / Fair Use a right)

http://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2015/09/14/13-16106.pdf

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/youtube-is-the-latest-to-defend-users-from-ridiculous-copyright-claims

https://www.eff.org/press/releases/important-win-fair-use-dancing-baby-lawsuit

Episode 66 and Episode 68

Blurred Lines Case

Then in Episode 65, we reported that the judge had ruled against the defendants’ motion for a new trial, but had trimmed the judgment down to about 5.3 Million Dollars…

and, just last week it was announced that The song’s writers, Robin Thicke, Pharrell Williams and T.I., have filed an appeal

Innocence of Muslims Ruling (and possible en banc review)

On February 26, 2014, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ordered YouTube to remove the video from its website by a 2-1 majority. The ruling was in response to a complaint by actress Cindy Lee Garcia, who had objected to the use of her performance, which had been partially dubbed for its inclusion in Innocence of Muslims.

Garcia had believed during production that she was appearing in a film called Desert Warrior, which was described as a “historical Arabian Desert adventure film”, and was unaware that anti-Islamic material would be added at the post-production stage. Garcia had argued that she held a copyright interest in her performance. the lower court disagreed, but the 9th initially held that she could have such an interest, and ordered youtubr/google to takedown the film.

then, In May of this year…, in an en banc opinion, the Ninth Circuit reversed the panel’s decision, vacating the order for the preliminary injunction…

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