Hollywood Docket Top 10: Olympic luger video; 'Sherlock' tops pirated list; Stan Lee's legal fees
Tue Feb 16, 2010 @ 09:31AM PSTEntertainment law news you need to care about this morning, supersized from the long weekend:
- Handling the video of the Olympic luger who died during a training run has been a tough task for broadcasters. NBC announced it would no longer broadcast the video during the Olympic games and the IOC has scrubbed YouTube of the clip by citing copyright. However, Canadian TV has been allowed users to view the clip via stream. [THR/ TV Newser/ Techdirt]
- "Sherlock Holmes" was again the most pirated movie last week. A DVD screener of "Avatar" slipped to the third most downloaded movie on BitTorrent and "Hurt Locker" came in ninth among the Top 10. [Torrentfreak]
- Stan Lee is being sued by his lawyers at Lavely & Singer for money owed to the firm. The complaint reads, "Similar to the flawed comic book super-heros he created, Stan Lee has demonstrated his own flaws by his failure to honor his agreements." Nice one, Marty. [TMZ]
- The legal battle between Terra Firma and Citigroup is producing interesting documentation about struggling music company EMI, including a proposed break-up of the recording and publishing sides of the company. [WSJ/Digital Music News]
- Shareholders have filed a class-action lawsuit against directors of Liberty Media, claiming self-dealing and breaches of fiduciary duty in connection with transactions made in late 2009. The plaintiffs claim the defendants including CEO John Malone structured transformation of the company in a way that gave them special treatment in the allotment of new stock. [CNS]
- Previously, a judge blocked Sublime band members from performing under the band's name without lead singer Bradley Nowell, who died in 1996. However, the parties have reached a settlement where the band will now be called Sublime With Rome. [Creative Loafing]
- Some major media companies are ramping up their legal efforts to gain access to government information, but doing more of the work in-house. [NYT]
- A U.K. court has found TV-Links, a website that connected users to unauthorized streaming of TV shows on third-party websites, not guilty of conspiracy to defraud and other copyright violations. [Digital Media Wire]
- Interesting quote from songwriter Suzanne Vega on why she decided to record an acoustic album: "I noticed that a lot of artists, like Carly Simon and Dar Williams, were recording acoustic versions of their songs, which is a way of owning the masters. You don't own the original recordings, but at least you own something." [New Yorker]
- LA Times columnist Steve Lopez gets superproducer Jerry Bruckheimer to comment (via statements from his publicist and business manager) on his ongoing battle with Ojai Valley neighbors over his view-obstructing trees. We know it's Ventura Country, but do these people not know who he is? [LAT]