Media & Entertainment Law

SAG - No New Meetings

Posted on July 16, 2008
This short press release from the AMPTP (studio alliance) says it all. Not particularly encouraging:STATEMENT BY THE AMPTP A small group from AMPTP and SAG met today. Both parties agreed that the contents of the meeting should be kept private...

Looking at the World Through SAG-Colored Glasses

Posted on July 11, 2008
Day by day, the Screen Actors Guild?s Hollywood leadership stumbles deeper into a morass, dragging behind it a bewildered and divided membership. Yesterday ? Thursday ? saw the spectacle of SAG insisting that it was still negotiating with the studios, while the latter just as steadfastly maintained that no such thing was happening...

Further Thoughts on AFTRA and SAG

Posted on July 08, 2008
Expanding on my previous post, I do want to acknowledge the obvious: this vote was a strong victory for AFTRA, especially in light of SAG's aggressive campaign against the vote. It was almost 2 to 1. AFTRA members are making a statement that they want to work, not strike...

Narrow Margin: AFTRA Ratifies Primetime Contract by 62.4%

Posted on July 08, 2008
AFTRA has ratified the primetime contract, but SAG?s assault had great effect. The margin ? the percent of yes votes ? was only 62.4%. The percentage of no votes was 37.6%. Turnout was not released. In contrast, the margin on the somewhat similar daytime pact (the AFTRA Network Code), ratified April 30, was 93%...

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Searching for Screenwriters in the South of France

Posted on July 07, 2008
A change of pace from labor unrest ? a belated letter from Cannes, originally scheduled for print publication, but cut for space reasons. CANNES, France ? Here at Cannes, almost everybody has a home. Stars and directors are found on the red carpet, and producers and distributors inhabit the Film Market in the basement of the Palais, headquarters of both the Festival and the Market...

Qualified Voting Redux

Posted on July 05, 2008
Remember "qualified voting"? Also called "affected voting," it's the idea that only some union members should be eligible to vote on a contract (or strike authorization): namely, those who are actually affected by it ? i.e., those who work under the contract...

AMPTP-SAG: How Final is Final?

Posted on July 03, 2008
Over on Vallywood, the smart and analytical law professor Steve Diamond has a piece that explains the legal implications of an employer making a "final offer," as the studios did two days ago. It's worth reading, along with my piece that also takes a look at what happens next, but through a different lens.

SAG: What Next?

Posted on July 02, 2008
Hollywood?s quiet today. Still, with the studios? ?final offer? on the table, the natural questions is, what happens next ? and will there be a strike? My answer: there won?t be a strike until late July at the earliest, if at all, but there also won?t be a SAG deal until then, at the earliest...

SAG-AMPTP: No News is No News

Posted on July 02, 2008
SAG and the AMPTP (studio alliance) met for four hours today. According to the AMPTP, the meeting was at SAG's request, and the AMPTP answered questions on the proposal it put on the table two days ago. The AMPTP adds that SAG said that it (SAG) will contact the AMPTP on Monday...

Investor Conference Call re SAG/AFTRA

Posted on July 01, 2008
I'm doing an investor conference call for Wachovia Capital Markets, tomorrow (Weds.) at 11:30 a.m. Pacific (2:30 p.m. Eastern) on the Screen Actors Guild and AFTRA situations. Please join us. Call in details belowDATE: Wednesday, July 2, 2008 11:30 AM Pacific; 2:30 PM EasternPARTICIPANT DIAL-IN: (800) 374-1206 (domestic) (706) 634-5796 (intl) Passcode: 54441528REPLAY DIAL-IN: (800) 642-1687 (domestic)(available for 1 week) (706) 645-9291 (intl) Passcode: 54441528Analysts: MARCI RYVICKER and JOHN JANEDIS, Wachovia Capital MarketsFeel free to publicize -- this invitation is open, and there's no charge...

AMPTP Makes Final Offer to SAG

Posted on June 30, 2008
The AMPTP just made a final offer to SAG. I'm advised by a AMPTP spokesman that this offer tracks the AFTRA and DGA/WGA deals in terms of minimums, new media, and other provisions. On force majeure (an actors-only issue), the AMPTP offer holds to the AMPTP's previous position that the existing contract language should be revised...

Marxism in Hollywood

Posted on June 27, 2008
Another day, another denunciation. It's hard to know what the SAG Hollywood leadership is thinking. They?ve deployed robocalls, trade ads, emails, and more, in a misguided effort to defeat the AFTRA deal. Success is unlikely, but in any case, the result will probably be continued labor paralysis, not progress...

Curtain Call

Posted on June 18, 2008
?We are not done yet!? shouted Screen Actors Guild leader Doug Allen three times at the guild?s anti-AFTRA rally last week. Evidently not, but Hollywood is beyond well-done and beginning to burn. It?s time for SAG to put its full efforts into crafting the best deal it can get, rather than try to derail the AFTRA primetime deal...

Quarterlife Less Than One Percent Life

Posted on June 10, 2008
We already knew that the underperforming Quarterlife didn't get a quarter of anything on NBC, but here's how poorly it performed online: of Myspace's 140 million members, there were only 140,000 views of the show, per creator Marshall Herskovitz, speaking yesterday at iHollywood Forum's Digital Media Summit in LA...

SAG Shreds AFTRA's Contract

Posted on June 06, 2008
Variety and the Hollywood Reporter are reporting that SAG chief Alan Rosenberg, National Exec Director Doug Allan, and the activist Membership First faction are pushing to have SAG come against the AFTRA deal and urge dual cardholders (members of both unions) to vote against the deal...

With One Union Already Done, SAG Auditions for an Actors Deal

Posted on June 06, 2008
One actors union has just done its deal with the studios, and now its larger rival, the Screen Actors Guild, is back at the bargaining table. Is a SAG deal imminent? Not likely. Instead, we may be sliding toward another Hollywood work stoppage. The signs aren?t good...

Acting Up

Posted on May 24, 2008
CANNES, France ? Do loose clips sink ships? Apparently the actors think so. Their ongoing union negotiations with the studios are hung up over clip consent ? the issue of whether studios can use short excerpts from movies and TV shows without an actor?s permission...

Workers of the World, Unite -- and Strike

Posted on May 24, 2008
Call it poetic (in)justice. After months of analyzing Hollywood's labor troubles, I took a sojourn to Cannes to enjoy the film festival and do a little business. Now it looks like I may have to involuntarily extend my stay. The culprit: a French transportation strike that's been occurring intermittently for the past few days...

Spinning the Web - Seminar at the WGA

Posted on May 08, 2008
Interested in writing original scripted content -- web series -- for the Internet? If so, come to Spinning the Web, a seminar on June 21 at the WGA, sponsored by the Writers Guild Foundation. It's an all-day affair with a host of speakers (including me).

Hollywood Actors ? What Now?

Posted on May 08, 2008
The Screen Actors Guild primetime and film contract talks collapsed Tuesday, and the next day, the American Federation of Television & Radio Artists began their own primetime TV talks with the studios, raising fears of a SAG strike and heightened inter-union strife between SAG and AFTRA...

SAG Talks Start Today

Posted on April 15, 2008
Just a reminder: formal talks between the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the studios (represented by the AMPTP) start today (Tuesday, April 15). And, in less than two weeks - on April 28 - talks begin between another actors union, the American Federation of Television & Radio Artists (AFTRA), and the AMPTP...

A Fine Mess at the FCC

Posted on April 14, 2008
The FCC's enforcement of the indecency rules is stalled, reports the LA Times. The reason: a perfect storm of three factors: a Court of Appeals ruling against the rules (as I previously blogged), a pending Supreme Court case that will rule on the rules, and (finally) a growing broadcaster willingness to fight FCC fines, probably in part because the FCC has increased minimum fines ten-fold...

Working With the Media

Posted on April 13, 2008
If you're ever interviewed by print, television, radio or online reporters, do you know what to say and how to say it ... what to wear and how to speak? If not, check out my media guide - two articles I wrote that appeared in the Daily Journal.

Is Content Worthless?

Posted on April 11, 2008
?Content is king,? many people believe, meaning that films, television shows, music, news and information are more profitable assets than the technology used to deliver them. But there's an older, cautionary aphorism that applies as well: ?Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown...

Trademarking Movie Titles

Posted on April 02, 2008
Literary titles - such as book or movie titles - fall in a gray area in U.S. law. For instance, although a book or movie is protected by copyright, its title isn't. Copyright simply doesn't cover titles.And even if the title is distinctive, such as The 40-Year-Old Virgin, courts and the Trademark Office say it can't be registered as a trademark, even though distinctive words and slogans can be registered as trademarks in other contexts...

SAG Thinks, Blinks

Posted on April 02, 2008
The Screen Actors Guild bowed to the inevitable yesterday and set a concrete date -- April 15 -- for commencement of talks with the studios. Had SAG not done so, it faced the prospect of a rival actors' union, AFTRA, setting a date for talks first, and thereby setting a template for SAG's negotiations...

Sorry Yari: No Legal Relief for Crash Producer Denied an Oscar

Posted on March 28, 2008
Crash producer Bob Yari wanted the opportunity to thank the Academy. The movie won an Oscar, but all Yari got was the chance to sue the Academy -- a poor substitute for a golden statuette, even in litigation-happy Hollywood. And even more of a letdown, his suit isn't winning any awards either...

Albany?s an interesting place,

Posted on March 20, 2008
Albany?s an interesting place, and not just because residents of the New York Governor?s mansion seem to spend as much time bed-hopping as signing budgets. On a more important ? although less salacious ? note, downstate Assemblyman Richard Brodsky has introduced legislation that would shore up Internet users? rapidly deteriorating privacy, reports the New York Times today...

Arthur C. Clarke dies at 90

Posted on March 19, 2008
Arthur C. Clarke has died, reports the New York Times. A science fiction writer and futurist, he's remembered for three things of particular interest to readers of this blog:Communications Satellites. In 1945, before the first orbital rocket flight, Clarke foresaw the possibility of communications satellites...

Net Neutrality Nice

Posted on March 18, 2008
As I previously blogged, the major Hollywood studios recently came out against net neutrality. Now the Independent Film & Television Alliance (IFTA), which represents independent producers and distributors, has taken a position - and they're for it...

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