Journal of International Media and Entertainment Law (JIMEL) This is the third of three posts in this series. The first post (Volume 8.1, containing 4 issues) can be found here. The second post (Volume 8.2, also containing 4 issues) can be found here. Southwestern’s Biederman Entertainment Blog is thrilled to provide readers with a roadmap to twelve articles on Fake News and “Weaponized Defamation” recently published in the Journal of International Media & Entertainment Law (JIMEL). JIMEL is the scholarly journal of the Biederman Institute, published in association with the American Bar A ..read more

Journal of International Media & Entertainment Law (JIMEL) This is the second of three posts in this series. The first post (Volume 8.1, containing 4 issues) can be found here. Southwestern’s Biederman Entertainment Blog is thrilled to provide readers with a roadmap to twelve articles on Fake News and “Weaponized Defamation” recently published in the Journal of International Media & Entertainment Law (JIMEL). JIMEL is the scholarly journal of the Biederman Institute, published in association with the American Bar Association’s Forum on Communications Law and the ABA’s Forum on the Ent ..read more

Journal of International Media & Entertainment Law (JIMEL) This is the first of three posts in this series. Southwestern’s Biederman Entertainment Blog is thrilled to provide readers with a roadmap to twelve articles on Fake News and “Weaponized Defamation” recently published in the Journal of International Media & Entertainment Law (JIMEL). JIMEL is the scholarly journal of the Biederman Institute, published in association with the American Bar Association’s Forum on Communications Law and the ABA’s Forum on the Entertainment and Sports Industries. JIMEL’s last three issues have been ..read more

Nathan Apodaca, also known as 420doggface208 on the popular social media video site TikTok, recently announced that he was selling an NFT of his virally iconic skateboard-riding, Fleetwood Mac-lip synching, cranberry juice-swilling 2020 TikTok video. Bidding for the NFT starts at $500,000. If you’ve seen the video, you may be surprised to learn that Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” and Ocean Spray’s logo are absent from the NFT version. Unless you’ve been living under a digital rock, you’ve probably come across this somewhat new form of digital collectible. If not, you can learn more here, here, or h ..read more

Written by: Darian Hogan Edited by: Wil Rios & Lauren Landau Most of us are aware, at least passively, of the infringement kerfuffle surrounding Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” and Spirit’s “Taurus.” What started as perhaps a standard infringement suit has dragged on and blossomed into a high-profile case considering seminal issues in music litigation such as infringement defenses, evidentiary issues, conflicts of law and standard-of-proof inquiries. Earlier this week, the 9th Circuit passed a landmark decision on this litigation, which has altered the future of infringement cases in ..read more

*Editors note: This post was updated (see below) on Nov. 12, 2018: In recent years, courts, lawyers, and judges have held huge sway over copyright law, which plays a central role in the creative life of the movie, television, publishing, and recording industries. But Congress and the executive branch have bestirred themselves with new legislation and agreements that seek to hurl intellectual property protections, especially for music, into a more modern era, with new technologies and realities. After years of maneuvering by various interested and competing parties, sufficient political and pr ..read more

This guest post was written by Crystal R. Nobregas, a Southwestern Law School fourth-year evening program student who is taking the Entertainment Law and the Emerging Web class. The 400 or so staffers of the U.S. Copyright Office in 2017 processed 468,000 claims and issued registrations for intellectual property protection to more than 414,000 applicants. The office, which handles submissions with and without correspondence and via online and snail mail, reports its work can take anywhere from 1 to 37 months to complete, averaging about 6 months for the bulk of the filings made on its web sit ..read more

Legal fees for entertainment projects in Los Angeles are costly and daunting. But they’re necessary to protect valuable intellectual property, deal with big risks of creative enterprises, and help filmmakers and their associated talent excel. Still, what would it mean to artists in the movie industry, especially innovative auteurs working with smaller budgets, if they could get needed legal counsel at no cost?  Just such assistance is available from Entertainment Law students at Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles. Under the close supervision of five seasoned and expert attorneys in t ..read more

This guest post was written by Crystal R. Nobregas, a Southwestern Law School fourth-year evening program student who is taking the Entertainment Law and the Emerging Web class. For any internet users who may be saddled with naughty kids, n’er do well drop-in nephews, or neighbors who employ sneaky tech to “borrow” their wi-fi without permission or paying for it, federal appellate judges in California have sent a small but key message recently: Got your back, man. That’s one way to look at the decision this fall by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which delivered a blow agains ..read more

Johann Sebastian Bach may have died 268 years ago, but does legal discord still prevail over the ownership of his musical works? It may, particularly if computers play a part. Earlier this month, James Rhodes— a British classical pianist who has attracted increasing public attention, not just for his virtuosity but also his harrowing personal story of childhood sexual abuse — posted a video on Facebook of his performance of Bach’s Partita No. 1 for keyboard, published in 1726. But shortly after the social media post went up on its site, Facebook silenced 47 seconds of it because Son ..read more