Amateur race car driver Sammy Wasem started a Ferrari fan page on Facebook when he was 15, and over time, it became an enormous success. In fact, he and his father Oliver earned a congratulatory email from Ferrari in March of 2009, when his site passed the 500,000-fan marker. However, the email read, “legal issues force us [Ferrari] in taking over the formal administration of the fan page.” And now, Wasem finds himself in a legal battle that may define the extent of online freedom …
Continue ReadingAuthor: Goldberg Segalla
Snyder’s Last Stand
The Washington Redskins, the Cleveland Indians, the Chicago Blackhawks, and the Kansas City Chiefs play different sports in different cities, but collectively, they share many things. Each team is beloved in their respective city by fans, young and old. Each team has a rich history and tradition. And each team is the proud owner of a trademark that could be construed as disparaging toward Native Americans, playing on stereotypical notions or imagery to sell merchandise to the public at large. A lot has been said …
Continue ReadingDoes a Kansas Sperm Donor Owe Child Support? Court Rules That He Does
A Kansas sperm donor says his parental rights and obligations ended after his donation. However, in a case that has drawn national headlines, the court says otherwise.
In 2009, William Marotta found an advertisement on Craigslist seeking a sperm donor. Marotta met with the lesbian couple that posted the ad, signed a contract waiving his parental rights, and donated his sperm to the couple, receiving $50. The couple split up one year later, and after one of the women stopped working due to an illness, …
Continue ReadingThe Infamous Chris Brown is in Trouble Again
Chris Brown is a Grammy-winning R&B star who has sold millions of albums, but to many, he’s known more for his rap sheet than his music. The singer’s latest brush with the law came on October 27, as Brown was arrested for assault following an altercation outside a Washington D.C. hotel. According to reports, charges were filed after an individual accused Brown and his bodyguard of punching him and breaking his nose. Some reports allege that the man attempted to unlawfully enter Brown’s tour …
Continue ReadingTiger’s 2013 Grade: “C” for Cheater?
Chances are that Tiger Woods has never gotten an “F” on any test or examination in his life. After all, he’s won 79 PGA Tour events, is a 14-time major champion and, prior to turning professional, spent two years as an undergraduate at Stanford University, one of our nation’s most prestigious institutions. This is at least part of the reason that Brandel Chamblee’s 2013 season-in-review “report card”, published last week on Golf.com, in which he gave Woods a grade of “F” for the season, …
Continue ReadingScreenwriter Alleges the Matt Damon Sci-Fi Hit Elysium Was His Idea
One of this summer’s worldwide hits was the Matt Damon-starring science fiction film Elysium. But several months after its release, director Neill Blomkamp’s movie, which tells the story of a poor man who attempts to save his life by making an illegal trip to a satellite planet surrounding a ruined Earth, has found itself at the center of controversy.
Blomkamp was recently sued by little-known screenwriter Steve Wilson Briggs for copyright infringement claiming similarities between Elysium and his screenplay Butterfly Diver. The suit, …
Continue ReadingFX facing mark’s F-X-Xtinction?
The name seemed silly from the moment those commercials started to run. You know them — the ones with the cast members of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia speaking to each other in what sounds, to the naked ear, like Swedish. The ad spots changed as the summer season rolled out on FX, but the punchline of each promo was always the same, with one cast member saying the name of the channel that the great comedy show was moving to. Repeat after Danny DeVito: …
Continue ReadingNCAA to Gradually Restore Penn State’s Football Scholarships
The NCAA announced this week that it will reduce the unprecedented sanctions against Penn State’s football program by gradually restoring scholarships starting next season. Modifications to other sanctions, such as reducing the four-year postseason ban, may be on the horizon but were not announced.
We all remember when the crimes committed by Jerry Sandusky were splashed on the front pages of newspapers, and when the case involving the notorious former Penn State assistant coach was the focus of every news channel for months. After Sandusky …
Continue ReadingSiriusXM: “It Ain’t Me Babe”
Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan, the principal songwriters and vocalists of 60’s pop group The Turtles, filed a class-action lawsuit in federal court in the Southern District of New York, against SiriusXM Radio, Inc., the satellite radio giant, captioned Flo & Eddie Inc., et al. v. SiriusXM Radio, Inc.; and Does 1 through 10, No. 13 CIV 5784, in mid-August. Perhaps signaling the urgency and seriousness of the situation, this past week attorneys from the New York-based law firms Weil, Gotschal and Manges LLP …
Continue ReadingRun DMC(A): No Safe Harbor for Vimeo against EMI?
It started with a simple equation: “Vimeo is video + you.” Yet this formula and model for the new “user-generated content”-fueled Internet has morphed into a case that could very well test the limits of the protection afforded to “service providers” under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
This past week, a federal judge found that a particular “safe harbor provision” of the DMCA, which has been invoked successfully by user-generated content providers like YouTube and Veoh in their respective quests to protect and insulate …
Continue Reading