Close-Ups

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By: Venable LLP

Latest from Close-Ups - Page 2

On April 13, 2020, a federal district court in the Southern District of New York[1] held in Sinclair v. Ziff Davis, LLC, and Mashable, Inc., 180CV0790 (KMW) (Order), that an Instagram user who posted a photograph to a public account effectively gave Instagram the right to sublicense her photographs to a third party.  The Court held that the user therefore had no viable claim against the third party for copyright infringement. The plaintiff…
On June 5, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) released statewide guidance for music, film, and television production to restart.  This guidance is the latest development in the reopening of the entertainment industry in California as the state continues to advance through its roadmap for reopening, following the submission to Governor Newsom on June 3 of a white paper with recommendations on this topic from representatives of producers and the unions of the…
On June 1, the Industry-Wide Labor-Management Safety Committee Task Force (Task Force), composed of representatives of producers and the unions of the motion picture and television industries, submitted to the governors of California and New York a white paper proposing guidelines for the resumption of motion picture, television, and streaming production (White Paper). The White Paper presents the consensus of the Task Force regarding the circumstances under which content production can safely resume, with an…
Recently, California Governor Gavin Newsom raised some eyebrows when he announced that state government officials anticipated publishing guidelines for the reopening of Hollywood production facilities by Memorial Day. The Governor’s announcement took many in the industry by surprise, given that producers and unions continue to wrestle with the legal obligations and operational complexities involved in safely reopening film and television productions with the ever-present threat of COVID-19. Faced with this monumental task and the fluid…
Employers of U.S. residents who are remaining in Europe while projects are shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic might benefit from a new taxpayer-friendly approach. The new protocol forgives days spent abroad because of COVID-19 travel restrictions, as part of a foreign-country corporate residency analysis. On March 23, 2020, the Irish Revenue Commissioners (Irish Revenue) issued Revenue eBrief No. 46/20, which announced Irish Revenue will adopt a taxpayer-friendly approach to corporate residency determinations for…
The perfect addition to any project is music. Whether you are making a video advertisement for your product; including music in your posts on your company website, TikTok, or YouTube; posting an at-home workout video for your clients; using music at corporate events; or playing music at your bar or restaurant – music is a vital part of society. Music is also the most common reason your content may be muted or taken down from…
In its second copyright opinion this term, the U.S. Supreme Court held 5–4 that the “government edicts doctrine” prevents states from owning copyrights in annotated codes.  See Georgia et al. v. Public.Resource.Org, Inc., No. 18-1150, 590 U.S. ___ (Apr. 27, 2020).  Chief Justice Roberts authored the majority opinion, and Justice Thomas and Justice Ginsburg penned dissents. The Official Code of Georgia Annotated (OCGA) contains every current Georgia statute (i.e., all of Georgia’s laws), along…
California employers beware. In Tilkey v. Allstate Insurance Co., No. D074459 (Cal. Ct. App. Apr. 21, 2020) (Order), California’s Fourth District Court of Appeal recently affirmed a judgment on a theory of self-published defamation. In doing so, it held that the plaintiff, a former life insurance salesman for Allstate, was justly awarded damages based on his compulsion to recite the allegedly false allegations Allstate made for terminating his employment to prospective employers.…
Last week, it was announced that eminent entertainment law firm Grubman, Shire, Meiselas and Sacks (Grubman) was the victim of a significant cyberattack. Current reports suggest that in addition to encrypting the firm’s data, so that the firm cannot gain access to its own files, the perpetrators made away with a massive amount of privileged data, including contracts, nondisclosure agreements, phone numbers, email addresses, and private correspondence of the firm’s clients. The attack has garnered…
On May 13, 2020, reality TV star Maurice “Mo” Fayne was arrested and charged with federal bank fraud by the U.S. Department of Justice in connection with his alleged misuse of loan proceeds obtained through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). Fayne submitted his PPP application in April, on which he claimed his company, Flame Trucking, had 107 employees and a monthly payroll of about $1.5 million. Fayne obtained over $2 million in funding from the…