Hollywood Docket: More Obama illustration strife

Entertainment law news this morning:

• Remember street artist Shepard Fairey's battle over using an Associated Press photograph as the basis for creating his "Obama Hope" poster? Now lawyers for the Wall Street Journal are looking into whether Spanish artist Jose Maria Cano violated copyright by making a painting that duplicates a WSJ illustrator's stipple portrait of the president. The painting (pictured) even includes some surrounding WSJ text. Like the Fairey-AP battle, the question will center on whether this was a transformative use of copyrighted material.
• A Connecticut prosecutor is doing everything in his power to keep the case against David Letterman's alleged blackmailer as secret as possible. Suzanne Vieux has filed papers arguing that unsealing search warrants would subject witnesses to media scrutiny and also wants the courtroom closed for a hearing today. But TMZ has the warrants already.
• Subjecting iPods to border searches sounds scary, although we honestly can't figure out how customs agents would be able to tell if music, videos, and games on iPods are illegally derived or not. Nevertheless, the proposal may be on the table in negotiations over a new international treaty called the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. No one is certain because those in the private sector who are advising the Obama administration are signing non-disclosure agreements stating the information is "classified" and won't share details about the treaty.
• THR Power Lawyer Marshall Grossman is representing LA Dodgers co-owner Frank McCourt in his separation from wife (and team co-owner) Jamie McCourt. Dennis Wasser is repping Jamie. 
• Al Gore might have invented the Internet but that doesn't mean posting an unpublished photo makes the photo a U.S. work. That's according to a decision in Delaware District Court last week concerning a Swedish photographer who posted his work on the website of a German art gallery and then tried to sue someone who offered customizable designs for sale. The court ruled the plaintiff's work wasn't a U.S. work and that the plaintiff didn't have jurisdiction to sue. 
• Marc Dreier, whose eponymous law firm once included an entertainment-focused LA outpost, was disbarred by the New York Supreme Court. Earlier in the year, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison for defrauding clients, hedge funds, and investors of $700 million.
• Bruce Wasserstein, a giant in legal circles, investment banking, and the media, died yesterday at 61. At the time of his death, Wasserstein was chairman of Lazard and owner of New York magazine. As a lawyer at Cravath, Swaine & Moore in the 1990s, he worked on some legendary deals. Later, Wasserstein purchased The American Lawyer and National Law Journal.