Hollywood Docket: Biden hates piracy; 'Dangerous' David Letterman?; Top dealmakers of '09

Entertainment law news this morning:

• Top industry execs huddled with VP Joe Biden and other government officials at the White House yesterday for a piracy summit. Not much is known about what was discussed at the private meeting, but Biden and attorney general Eric Holder emerged expressing the need to do more to combat copyright theft. Consumer advocates are unhappy they weren't invited to participate in the discussions.
• The prosecutors in the David Letterman extortion case released tapes of accused blackmailer and former CBS producer Robert "Joe" Halderman expressing worry about a "crazy" and "dangerous" Letterman. Halderman, who allegedly offered to sell e-mails that romantically linked Letterman to a staffer as a "movie treatment," expressed concern that the host might have him fired, burn down his house, or have him killed.
• In Italy, YouTube has lost a copyright lawsuit brought by Italian media giant Mediaset over video of "Big Brother" appearing on the video-sharing website. A court ordered YouTube to remove the video but doesn't appear to have yet granted the 500 million Euros in damages being sought. Google says it will appeal. 
• A man plead guilty yesterday to stalking ESPN reporter Erin Andrews and releasing nude video of her on the Internet. At the guilty plea hearing, Andrews asked the judge to impose the maximum possible sentence, saying she's been subject to crude comments from fans and still has nightmares.
• The FCC is proposing closing loopholes to program access rules that prohibit cable operators that own programming from refusing to sell their networks to competing distributors. Normally, the change would encounter tremendous resistance on the part of cable companies like Comcast, but the company make try to make nice as the agency reviews its acquisition of NBC Universal.
• A Los Angeles city councilman has proposed the creation of a film commission that would promote the city to the entertainment industry. Entertainment lawyer Gordon Firemark says he's stunned that the city, historically home to the TV and film industries, doesn't already have one.
• A popular Chinese author is suing Google for copyright infringement for scanning her book and displaying a small amount of text. Recently, in a revision of the class action settlement over Google Books, many foreign, non-English books were taken out. 
• The Colorado Supreme Court recently upheld a state ban prohibiting theatrical smoking. One Supreme Court justice wrote an entertaining dissent that claimed that prop cigarettes just won't allow actors to be as dramatic. 
• Garth Brooks is suing his hometown hospital for $500,000 for breach of contract. The singer claims he donated money for a hospital building to be named after his late mother, but it never happened. 
• WhoRepresents.com names the "Top 25 Representatives in Hollywood for 2009" after measuring who in the industry made the best deals on behalf of their clients. Ari Emanuel at WME tops the list. At #7 overall, Ziffren's Sam Fischer is the top lawyer. In all, the list includes 13 agents, 8 attorneys, and 4 managers.