Hollywood Docket: J-Lo sex tape as evidence?; Roger Avary rats himself out; video game disability

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Hollywood Docket: J-Lo sex tape as evidence?; Roger Avary rats himself out; video game disability

Mon Nov 30, 2009 @ 10:02AM PST

 Entertainment law news this morning:

  • Tomorrow should be an interesting court day for Jennifer Lopez. Her ex-husband Ojani Noa apparently intends to file a $100 million countersuit for blocking distribution of a proposed mockumentary that may include a real sex tape. Noa will also attempt to file the 11 hours of home video into the public record. A sex tape as evidence?
  • Last week, the LA Times reported that "Pulp Fiction" screenwriter Roger Avary was tweeting from jail in the midst of serving a one-year sentence for vehicular manslaughter. The story caught the attention of correctional officers, who realized that Avary had been mistakenly assigned to a work furlough program instead of a higher security facility. He's since been moved.
  • A White House official recently compared censorship in China with the need for net neutrality rules to prevent corporations from acting as gatekeepers of free speech. "If it bothers you that the China government does it, it should bother you when your cable company does it," said Andrew McLaughlin, deputy chief technology officer at the White House. The comment is troubling telecom execs.
  • A vision-impaired video gamer is suing Sony Corp, arguing that its virtual worlds violate the American with Disabilities Act. Alexander Stern says the games should add visual and auditory "cues" to help hum navigate online role-playing games. Before one dismisses him as just another guy trying to game the court system (like this), On Point's Julie Edgar offers an interesting analysis about why Stern may stand a decent chance in court.
  • Jared Leto is paying homage to legendary actress Olivia de Havilland for helping him in his attempts to defend a multi-million dollar lawsuit from EMI over claims his band 30 Seconds to Mars failed to produce an agreed number of albums. Leto says he plans to visit De Havilland in France to mark her landmark 1940s lawsuit that led to service contracts in California being ruled invalid after seven years.
  • This isn't about entertainment or media law, exactly, but since the topic of "substantial similarity" often bedevils studios in copyright cases, we find this article about how two crossword puzzles ended up almost exactly alike to be very interesting. 

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The Hollywood Reporter, Esq. blog focuses on how the entertainment and media industries are impacted and influenced by the law. It is edited by Matthew Belloni with contributions from veteran legal reporter Eriq Gardner and others. Before joining The Hollywood Reporter, Belloni was a lawyer at an entertainment litigation firm in Los Angeles. He writes a column for THR devoted to entertainment law. Gardner is a New York-based writer and legal journalist. Send tips or comments to [email protected]

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