Entertainment Law News for 1.26.10

• 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.

A law in France may reportedly oblige 20th Century Fox to release Avatar 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.

American Needle v. NFL Update

As many know, the much anticipated case American Needle v. NFL had oral arguments in front of the US Supreme Court today. Here are some recaps of the action so far:

Lyle Denniston over at the fantastic SCOTUSblog has posted a recap of this morning’s oral argument in American Needle v. NFL.

The Associated Press has also posted a short recap of the argument, agreeing that the Court generally seemed unwilling to extend the NFL single entity status.

Reuters reports that the Court appeared unlikely to rule in favor of the NFL. However, Zach Lowe at AmLawDaily suggests that the Court may be inclined to adopt something along the lines of the case-by-case approach advocated by the Solicitor General.

The transcript from this morning’s oral argument is now available.

Finally: BCS Antitrust Suit in the works

ESPN.com’s Lester Munson reported on Friday that Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff is prepared to file an antitrust lawsuit against the BCS as soon as early 2010.

AG Shurtleff has scheduled a meeting with Christine Varney, the head of the U.S. Department of Justice’s antitrust division, to ascertain whether the federal government would be interested in participating in the suit.

Entertainment Law News for 12.3.09

• It’s finally done. Comcast has announced a deal that will give the company a 51% stake in NBC Universal. Here’s THR’s deal announcement story, as well as an analysis of the regulatory review to come. Comcast is represented by a team of lawyers at Davis Polk & Wardwell in the deal. GE and NBC were advised by lawyers at Weil, Gotshal & Manges. Vivendi was represented by lawyers at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.
• In unrelated news, NBC announced the departure of business affairs chief Rick Olshansky. For now, the division will be headed by NBCU TV president Marc Graboff, who formerly administered the division before being elevated in 2007.
• AT&T and Verizon have agreed to back off from their legal war over similar advertisements. AT&T, producers of the “There’s an App for That” commercial, sued Verizon over the “There’s a Map for That” campaign. Two weeks ago, a court declined AT&T’s motion to stop Verizon’s ads. So AT&T, suffering from some bad PR from being litigious, has decided to withdraw its lawsuit.
• Redbox has added a new claim to antitrust lawsuits against Twentieth Century Fox and Warner Home Video. The cutthroat DVD kiosk vendor filed papers in court accusing the two studios of retail interference, saying chains like Wal-mart, Target and Best Buy are limiting the number of DVDs it can buy. In August, a judge dismissed a similar tortious interference claim against Universal.
• A court in Sweden has denied the entertainment industry’s attempts to order a Swedish ISP from cutting off access to OpenBitTorrent, which the studios claim is The Pirate Bay’s new torrent tracker.

Amicus Briefs filed in American Needle v. NFL

Friday was the deadline for the filing of amicus curiae briefs supporting the petitioner, American Needle, in American Needle v. NFL. According to the Supreme Court’s docket, the following amicus briefs were filed:

• A joint brief filed by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission, available here.

• A brief by a group of economists including Rodney Fort, Brad Humphreys, Roger Noll, James Quirk, Stefan Szymanski, and Andrew Zimbalist, available here.

• A brief by the players’ unions in the four major sports (i.e., the NFLPA, MLBPA, NBAPA, and NHLPA), available here.

• A brief by the American Antitrust Institute and the Consumer Federation of America, available here.

• A brief by the National Football League Coaches Association, available here.

• A brief by the Merchant Trade Association, available here.

Petitioner’s Brief in American Needle v. NFL available for download

American Needle filed its opening brief Friday for their Supreme Court case against the National Football League. The brief is available for download here.

The litigation is highly anticipated because of its far-reaching Antitrust issues and the fact that this decision will likely have an effect on every other professional sports league in the United States. There will be more updates to come once the litigation proceeds further.