In Nealy v. Warner Chappel Music Inc., a twice-incarcerated plaintiff sued his former manager for licensing his music without authorization — all while the inmate had been serving his first sentence. Argued before the 11th Circuit, this case highlights a circuit split. The sole issue was whether the plaintiff could bring a lawsuit for copyright…
Zahedi v. Miramax, LLC. is an interesting case from the Central District of California. The decision came out of dueling motions for summary judgment: Miramax trying to dismiss the underlying complaint based on the statute of limitations; and photographer Firooz Zahedi seeking affirmation of his copyright ownership as well as the dismissal of the statute of…
With success come lawsuits. Comedian Jerry Seinfeld has seen his share and, as Charles v. Seinfeld illustrates, is getting pretty good at them. In 2011, plaintiff Christian Charles worked on the pilot episode of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. He would later go on to claim authorship of it, which was disputed by Jerry Seinfeld. According to Seinfeld,…
With the pandemic completely altering the way we live, there are likely to be many parties to contracts turning to the “force majeure” provision of their contracts — or else, if they have no such provision, turning to similar, common law defenses. Force majeure is typically a provision that says if, by some major force, a party…