Media & Entertainment Law

F**king Expletives!

Posted on March 18, 2008
Can the Federal Communications Commission impose harsh fines on TV networks when on-air presenters make fleeting and isolated use of an expletive? In other words, if the enthusiastic recipient of a Grammy or Golden Globe says an unscripted "fuck yeah!," can the broadcaster be fined?That's an issue the Supreme Court will take up next year, reports the New York Times...

Viacom Can't Get Punitive Damages in YouTube/Google Suit

Posted on March 13, 2008
Viacom's suit against YouTube and Google slowly works its way through the legal system. In a decision rendered last week, but only generally reported yesterday, the Federal District Court in New York hearing the case denied Viacom's motion to amend its complaint to seek punitive damages against the defendants...

Net Neutrality Naughty?

Posted on March 13, 2008
Hollywood studios are taking a position on net neutrality ? the principle that ISPs should not discriminate against small users when providing network bandwidth ? and they?re against it. In reported remarks at the annual movie exhibitors conference ShoWest, MPAA chief Dan Glickman claimed that net neutrality would inhibit industry efforts to combat piracy ? presumably because it would ensure that even pirate sites receive sufficient bandwidth for efficient uploads and downloads...

Hollywood Labor: What?s Up with the Actors?

Posted on March 12, 2008
AFTRA, a Hollywood actors union, just reached a tentative deal with the networks. Does that mean the actors are done, and we can be assured there?ll be no actors strike this year? Hint: no. Then what does it mean? First, if you?re just tuning in to the Hollywood labor woes of 2007-2008, here?s a summary of what happened...

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AFTRA reaches tentative agreement on Network TV Code

Posted on March 10, 2008
Here's a press release from AFTRA:---------------------- American Federation of Television and Radio Artists NEWS RELEASEFor Immediate Release: MARCH 9, 2008AFTRA REACHES TENTATIVE AGREEMENT WITH MAJOR NETWORKS AND PRODUCERS ON NETWORK TV CODELOS ANGELES -- The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists--the national labor union of 70,000 actors, singers and recording artists, dancers, announcers, and other broadcast talent--has reached a tentative agreement with the four major television networks and producers on the Network Television Code, which is subject to AFTRA National Board approval and ratification from members...

Talent Managers and Two Sets of Supremes

Posted on February 21, 2008
The U.S. Supreme Court hears a tiny number of cases per year. Ditto the California Supreme Court. So, when someone feels wronged, and wants to take a case "all the way to the top," the hardest part of their job is just getting a Supreme Court - of either flavor - to even take the case...

WGA Deal: Details

Posted on February 21, 2008
Want to know the gory details of the tentative writers deal (now being voted on by the Writers Guild members)? If so, read on. The Writers Guild has released a deal summary at http://www.wga.org/contract_07/wga_tent_summary.pdf, and actual contract language (not posted, but I can email it to you)...

Format War Over: Toshiba Drops HD DVD

Posted on February 19, 2008
It's official: Toshiba has discontinued HD DVD, reports Variety Asia. That's the end of the format -- Toshiba is the owner of the format -- and of the high-def DVD format war. The move follows a string of recent setbacks for HD DVD, and should give a boost to that format...

Blu-ray Wins

Posted on February 16, 2008
In the presidential campaign, the battle between blue states and red states hasn't yet begun, but in the DVD format wars, there's finally a victor, reports the New York Times (although the LA Times is a little less certain), and it's blue. Blu-ray, that is...

Loopy Hollywood Accounting on Lord of the Rings?

Posted on February 12, 2008
Is it the same old line from New Line? The Tolkien Trust thinks so.That org, a charity controlled by the heirs of J.R.R. Tolkien, has sued New Line for $150 million, alleging that the studio failed to pay a 7.5% gross profit participation due on the three "Lord of the Rings" films, report Variety and The Hollywood Reporter...

Where's the AMPTP? And Do We Care?

Posted on February 11, 2008
In a wonderful article, Variety summarizes the last few month of negotiation, and notes that "movement in the WGA talks began when Disney CEO Robert Iger and News Corp. prexy Peter Chernin got into the same room with Verrone, Young and Bowman" and engaged in informal talks rather than formal bargaining sessions...

Writers Deal: Analysis

Posted on February 10, 2008
The Writers Guilds East and West held membership meetings Saturday to brief members on the tentative deal. You can read the deal summary here. Here?s my analysis (in the same order as in the deal summary) and recommendations. Note that actual contract language has not been released and may not be prior to ratification, so analysis is shadowed by some uncertainties, some of which are noted below...

Writers Deal: Details Emerge

Posted on February 09, 2008
The Writers Guild held a closed-door meeting Friday with strike captains to brief them on the tentative deal. Here?s what a source inside the room told me: The Meeting About 250 strike captains attended. The confab was at WGA headquarters in LA...

What's the Deal?

Posted on February 06, 2008
We haven't been hearing much detail yet on the WGA deal in process, but here are a few data points:On ad-supported streaming, Variety says the deal is initially similar to the DGA deal - in other words, a fixed dollar residual. No word if the amount is the same as in the DGA deal, and it might be difficult to make the amounts match exactly, because the fixed dollar amount in the DGA deal is keyed off of provisions in the DGA agreement that may not be identical to those in the WGA agreement...

Favored Nations?

Posted on February 04, 2008
With a writers deal apparently in the offing, now's a time to pause and ask about favored nations. The questions are simple:First, if the writers gain an improvement over the directors deal, will the directors "retroactively" get the benefit of the writers bargain? Maybe so - they may insist on it (note that their membership hasn't yet been asked to ratify their deal, and might refuse to do so without the retroactive improvements)...

Recap: Investor Conference Call re the Strike

Posted on February 01, 2008
If you missed the call, here's information for replaying the recording, available until Feb. 8:Replay phone number: 800-633-8284International Replay phone number: 402-977-9140Reservation #: 21370994Also, over at Vallywood, Steve Diamond has generously posted a detailed summary of the call.

TiVo Trounces Dish Network

Posted on February 01, 2008
TiVo prevailed in part in its patent suit against Dish Network, sending TiVo shares up 29%.

Do You Yahoo!? Microsoft Does

Posted on February 01, 2008
Micrososft has made an usolicited offer to buy Yahoo!. Details are or will be available in your favorite newspaper or entertainment trade pub.

Conference Call Presentation Friday on Strike

Posted on January 31, 2008
I'm presenting an investor conference call tomorrow on the strike at 11:00 a.m. PST / 2:00 p.m. EST. Email me your contact info and affiliation if you'd like to dial in and learn more about the current state of affairs and prospects for settlement: jhandel at att dot net.

Sundance Film Review: "Secrecy"

Posted on January 27, 2008
As the Sundance Film Festival draws to a close, a film review seems in order. The film is ?Secrecy,? a documentary about U.S. government secrecy ? specifically, the use of classification to hide mistakes and embarrassing truths from the citizenry. Although the film is important, it suffers from [two sentences deleted]...

The Writers Guild Faces Reality (and Animation)

Posted on January 23, 2008
As I predicted 2-1/2 months ago, before the strike began, the WGA has dropped its demands for reality and animation jurisdiction. That's a very encouraging, positive move. Hopefully, the studios too will see the world in a new light, and be open to some modification of the DGA deal (see The Directors Deal ? Fair or Feasible?) and we can have a deal by Oscar day.

SAG and the WGA

Posted on January 22, 2008
Eventually the studios and the WGA will make a deal. Will SAG accept the WGA deal as a template (assuming it doesn't accept the DGA deal as a template)? The conventional wisdom is yes, but the question's still worth asking.Also, there's at least one issue that's important to SAG, but not to the WGA or DGA: forced endorsements...

HBO Free Online VOD Test

Posted on January 22, 2008
The Cynopsis Digital email newsletter has an interesting report today:HBO begins testing a new broadband content offering today in a selection of Time Warner Cable systems in Milwaukee and Green Bay, Wisconsin. HBO on Broadband, viewable only on PCs by HBO TWC subscribers, will offer access to some 600 episodes (400 at any one time) of HBO originals per month for no additional charge, including The Wire, Sex and the City and The Sopranos...

DGA Deal Details

Posted on January 20, 2008
Looking for details on the DGA deal? Most of it is in the DGA press release, but a few items are in various writers' emails (which may or may not be accurate):DGA press release (HTML or PDF)Ad-Supported Streaming for TheatricalUnited Hollywood analysis (discusses some items writers want that are or may be omitted from DGA deal)For comparison, consider what the WGA obtained in the Worldwide Pants (Letterman) deal:Executive summary

The Directors Deal ? Fair or Feasible?

Posted on January 18, 2008
The Directors Guild has reached agreement with the studios. Should the Writers Guild accept the same deal ... or try to negotiate better terms, and possibly continue the strike for months? Is the deal fair, or merely feasible, i.e., the best the DGA thought it could get? What's the tradeoff between fair and feasible, and what should the WGA do next?Let's take a closer look...

Sunny Outlook for Studios at Sundance

Posted on January 16, 2008
Several years ago, the Sundance film festival established an Industry Office to assist film industry attendees at the fest, many of whom are buyers scouting for films to acquire. That was an apparently reluctant acknowledgment of what everyone already knew: the festival had become a marketplace as well, and a frenzied one at that...

Directors Should Make a Deal the Writers and Actors Can Live With

Posted on January 16, 2008
The Directors Guild has been negotiating with the studios and networks for the last several days. If they want to end the writers strike - and put the industry back to work - they should do a deal on new media that the writers and actors will accept too...

Pirates Say Yo-ho-ho to Strike?

Posted on January 11, 2008
Are pirate movie sites benefiting from the strike? Cynthia Brumfield on IP Democracy thinks so. In addition, she cites stats showing a dramatic increase in legit video sharing sites since the strike began.

Fi-Core Furor

Posted on January 11, 2008
The Los Angeles Times online opinion page has a piece on John Ridley's decision to go financial core. (See my post here for an explanation of what fi-core means.)Ridley's decision has understandably caused quite the furor: check out the HuffPost, NY Times, NPR, and the Strike Hawk Blog...

Details of Letterman Deal

Posted on January 10, 2008
The Guild has posted a point-by-point summary of the Worldwide Pants (David Letterman) deal. The Guild got pretty much everything it wants. Tip of the hat to Michael Learmonth for the heads up.

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