Hollywood Docket: 'Sherlock Holmes' tops pirate list; Live Nation-Ticketmaster; Carlos the Jackal
Tue Jan 26, 2010 @ 09:57AM PSTEntertainment law news this morning:
- "Sherlock Holmes" was the most-pirated movie last week thanks to a DVD screener of the film, which appears to be circulating on BitTorrent. Holmes and Watson bump "Avatar" from the top spot to the fifth most downloaded movie last week.
- Speaking of "Avatar," a law in France may reportedly oblige 20th Century Fox to release the film on DVD and Blu-ray earlier than planned. According to The Media Wonk, an overlooked provision of France's "three strikes" legislation, meant to punish repeat copyright infringers, mandates a strict release window for studios to release films on DVD and Blu-ray four months after their theatrical debut.
- Antitrust news: The Justice Department says it will approve the merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster under the condition that it divest itself from the Paciolan ticketing operation and strike a ticketing licensing agreement with competitor AEG. The review took almost a year.
- Even though file-sharer Jammie Thomas-Rasset scored a big victory when a judge reduced a jury's $1.92 million award to just $54,000, her lawyers say she will still challenge the penalty as unconstitutionally excessive.
- A songwriter has won a copyright infringement lawsuit against a former collaborator for selling the rights to a sampled song that provided the basis for the Black Eyed Peas hit "My Humps." The judge didn't buy any of the defendant's arguments, including that he co-authored the song, owned it under the work-for-hire doctrine, or that the rights were assigned to him.
- The man known as "Carlos the Jackal," who has been popularized in films and books, is bringing an intellectual property violation lawsuit against a French production company shooting a documentary film on him.
- How much did NBC pay for "Lovely Rita" on Conan last week? One lawyer makes her bet.