This is how a simple, everyday experience of one man and his smart phone turns into big dollars. In short, a person (not a professional photographer), takes a picture of a criminal defendant. That picture is newsworthy. The picture is posted to Instragram. Cox Media uses the picture without first licensing it. The Plaintiff, who has now registered the photograph with the US Copyright Office, sues for infringement and wins the liability phase of the case on summary judgment. The Defendant asserts a fair use defense and loses.
This is the tale of Cruz x. Cox Media Grp., LLC, Docket No. 18-CV-1041 in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York. A copy of the Court’s Memorandum and Order appears below.
Here are a streamlined version of the facts, as presented by the Court in its opinion granting the Plaintiff’s summary judgment motion:
Read moreFor years, the members of Led Zeppelin have been defending a copyright lawsuit brought by the trustees of The Estate of Randy Wolfe, which alleged that Zeppelin had infringed on the Estate’s copyright of Taurus, which was a song written by Wolfe and performed by his band Spirit in the late 1960s.
Today, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an en banc ruling which ultimately sides with Led Zeppelin. The Ninth Circuit was considering the Estate’s appeal of the District Court ruling after a jury determined that no copyright infringement occurred. This is a vindication for Led Zeppelin and likely ends this claim. The Estate’s only recourse now is to file a petition for Certiorari with the US Supreme Court. The Supreme Court receives tens of thousands of petitions a year, and can only grant a hearing in an extremely small percentage of those matters.
Read more Many of my creator friends and clients have expressed interest in fixed (and low cost) access to legal and coaching services to assist their careers as entrepreneurs in the Creative Industries.
You are musicians, artisans, authors, photographers, animators, educators, chefs or others who work in the arts.
I have heard you, and created a subscription based program which launches in February 2020 to increase access to legal services tailor made to the economic realties we are all facing: CREATORS united.
Read moreThe prior post contained a quick survey of the issues that surround voting power and control of a business with multiple equity owners. Before you read this post, make sure you have read the prior post.
In this post, we will discuss a very important topic to business owners: under what circumstances can you sell your shares of a closely held business? The short answer, not surprisingly, depends on the terms and conditions in your Shareholder Agreement. (Remember that for the purposes of this series, the term “Shareholder Agreement” also refers to partnership agreements as well as operating agreements, which is the document that governs the management of limited liability companies.)
If you have acquired shares of stock of a privately held company through a Regulation D offering, those securities are likely subject to SEC Rule 144, which is a different discussion altogether. That will be the subject of a future post. For now, let’s focus on the restriction that companies typically can include in their Shareholder Agreements. These generally fall into two categories: 1) voluntary transfers and 2) involuntary transfers.
Read moreOne topic of conversation that always sparks a lot of interest is how to organize the ownership structure of the company when co-owners or investors are involved. This post begins a four part series looking at key topics to consider when organizing a company with multiple owners. In this post, we look at voting power and how it can be distributed. This topic alone could fill an entire semester in business or law school, so this brief discussion is meant as a beginning point for a review of your own business plans.
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