Media & Entertainment Law

Trademark Protection and Facebook User Names

Posted on June 10, 2009
Trademark protection just got a slightly more complicated, but in a good way. Starting now, there?s a new step that trademark holders or their attorneys should take to protect their trademarks or service marks. You probably already know that registering domain names corresponding to your marks gives you important practical protection...

TV Series Pickups Favor AFTRA 5 to 1

Posted on June 09, 2009
Several months ago, we learned that pilot season this year was 94% AFTRA (or 87% by some calculations), a complete 180 from its usual 90% SAG. That didn?t look good for SAG, but a few Membership First hardliners urged us to wait and see how the all-important series pickups turned out...

More Bull in China?s Shop

Posted on June 09, 2009
There?s more from the country that?s bent Google and Microsoft to its will, forcing them to help censor the Internet, and that even apparently got Yahoo to provide information that led to the torture and imprisonment of dissidents. This time, not satisfied with censoring those services (and YouTube, Twitter and Flickr as well), and perhaps frustrated at the imperfect filtering provided by the nationwide system referred to as ?the Great Firewall of China,? the Chinese government is requiring all PC?s sold in that country to come with filtering software, called ?Green Dam Youth Escort...

Uneasy Lies the Head that Wears the Crown: Why Content?s Kingdom is Slipping Away

Posted on June 09, 2009
Content and technology are locked in a struggle whose outcome may determine the future of the entertainment industry. The problem is this: Content is becoming a commodity. In contrast, although distribution used to be the exclusive province of Hollywood?movie theaters, television networks, home video, among others?this is no longer true...

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SAG TV/Theatrical Contract Ratified Overwhelmingly, 78%-22%

Posted on June 09, 2009
In a stunning defeat for the hardline Membership First faction, SAG's TV/theatrical contract passed overwhelmingly, by a 78%-22% margin (almost 4 to 1), those numbers according to the guild. Variety first reported the story, prior to the guild's announcement, with a 1% difference in the numbers...

SAGWatch: SAG at a Crossroads

Posted on June 06, 2009
Worth a read over at SAGWatch.

JLH on UCLA Panel re Labor

Posted on June 06, 2009
Next Sat., June 13, I'll be on a labor panel at the UCLA Altered States Media Conference, sponsored by the UCLA Producers Program and the UCLA Festival for New Creative Works.Here's the panel:10:15 AM - 11:30: Studio and Labor Relations in 2015Moderator: Arnold Peter (Partner, Raskin Peter LLP) * Mike Farrell (Actor, M*A*S*H, Providence) * Jonathan Handel (Attorney, TroyGould Attorneys) * Patric Verrone (President, Writers Guild of America, West) * Sallie Weaver (Founder, Entertainment Labor Consulting, Inc...

Three Membership First Candidates Elected to AFTRA Boards

Posted on June 04, 2009
The AFTRA Los Angeles results are in. Many candidates were reelected, but new winners include two Membership First leaders?SAG 1st VP Anne-Marie Johnson (AFTRA national board) and former SAG Hollywood Board member David Jolliffe (AFTRA Los Angeles local board)?as well as Membership First member Alan Ruck (AFTRA national board)...

Interview with Anne-Marie Johnson

Posted on June 02, 2009
Andrew Salomon over at Back Stage magazine's Blog Stage has an excellent and revealing interview with SAG 1st VP Anne-Marie Johnson.

Report on SAG NY Town Hall Meeting

Posted on June 02, 2009
SAG held a town hall meeting in NY last night to provide information re the TV/theatrical contract. It comes a bit late in the process, since the ballots are due back in the mail by next Tuesday, June 9. That means that the last day to reliably mail the ballots is probably Friday, or even Thursday, depending on your faith in the USPS and its vagaries...

Kathy Joosten Responds to Martin Sheen

Posted on June 01, 2009
An excellent video by Kathy Joosten (vote Yes on the SAG contract) responding to the recent video by Martin Sheen and friends (vote No).

SAG Files Motion to Dismiss Rosenberg Appeal

Posted on May 24, 2009
As you'll recall, several months ago, SAG president Alan Rosenberg and three other hardliners (1st VP Anne-Marie Johnson and board members Diane Ladd and Kent McCord) sued their own union, seeking to enjoin negotiations and reverse personnel and procedural changes that they correctly anticipated would pave the way for a deal on terms the hardliners are pledged to oppose...

SAG-AFTRA Ratify Advertising Agreement; SAG Townhall Features Fireworks

Posted on May 22, 2009
SAG and AFTRA announced yesterday that their combined paid-up membership, about 132,000 members, overwhelmingly ratified the contracts between the unions and the advertising industry. The result was expected, as there was no organized opposition. About 28% returned their ballots, about typical...

SAG Executive Director: TV/Theatrical Deal Will Pass

Posted on May 20, 2009
The referendum on the proposed contract between SAG and the studios began yesterday, as ballot packets were mailed to about 110,000 paid up members of the Screen Actors Guild. The votes are due back June 9. Will the agreement be ratified? SAG President Alan Rosenberg claims there?s ?a good chance? it won?t, but the guild?s interim National Executive Director David White says otherwise, predicting confidently that the deal will pass...

SAG?s Strange Voyage

Posted on May 19, 2009
Where did the Screen Actors Guild go? After months of news?a near daily barrage covered diligently by various journalists and citizen-journalists, including this author?the guild fell off the radar screen. It was as though 5757 Wilshire, SAG?s national headquarters, somehow disappeared into the black hole that features so prominently in (spoiler alert) the latest ?Star Trek? movie...

SAG Hardliners' Picnic No Walk in the Park

Posted on May 18, 2009
What if you held a picnic and nobody came? That?s almost where Membership First found itself yesterday. A beautiful day, a heavily promoted event, yet the SAG faction was only able to draw about 70 people to its Griffith Park / LA Zoo shindig, reports Variety...

Massive EU Antitrust Fine Levied Against Intel

Posted on May 13, 2009
The European Commission has fined Intel 1.06 billion Euros?about $1.45 billion?for alleged anticompetitive actions against longtime rival AMD and enjoined any future such actions, report Reuters and the NY Times. The fine, a record, is more than double the one imposed on Microsoft in 2004, and 25% larger than a 2008 penalty against a glass maker for price fixing...

SAG Hardliners: The Trojan Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Posted on May 13, 2009
SAG?s Hollywood branch, dominated by the hardline Membership First faction, has passed a motion forming a task force to explore ?acquisition of actors of AFTRA,? reports SAGWatch. The purpose of the awkwardly-phrased motion is evidently to eliminate AFTRA?s jurisdiction over television acting (long a stated goal of MF), leaving it with only broadcasters (newscasters, weather reporters, etc...

SAG Letter re Force Majeure Claims

Posted on May 13, 2009
SAG just sent members an email regarding force majeure claims. It's reprinted below.??????? Subscribe to my blog (jhandel.com) for more about SAG, or digital media law generally. Go to the blog itself to subscribe via RSS or email. Or, follow me on Twitter, friend me on Facebook, or subscribe to my Huffington Post articles...

SAG Sets Informational Meetings re TV/theatrical Agreement

Posted on May 08, 2009
The TV/theatrical ballots will go out May 19 (about ten days from now) and are due back by mail on June 9. SAG has set members-only informational meetings on the proposed contract. The LA meeting is sure to have fireworks, since the leaders of the Membership First faction, based in LA, oppose the proposed deal...

Barbara A. Ringer, author of 1976 Copyright Act, 1925-2009

Posted on May 05, 2009
Sometimes an obituary answers a question one never thought to ask. In this case, the question is, who wrote the 1976 Copyright Act? The answer turns out to be Barbara Ringer, who died April 9 at age 83, according to a detailed obituary in the LA Times...

SAG TV/Theatrical Ballots Later Than Expected; SAG Litigation Continues; and More

Posted on April 29, 2009
The ballots for SAG?s recently approved TV/theatrical contract won?t be going out until mid to late May, a source tells me, several weeks later than the early May target that the Guild stated as recently as a week or so ago. That means that ratification, if achieved as expected, will not come until early to mid June, since balloting is expected to be a three week process...

SAG Cutting Staff by 8%

Posted on April 22, 2009
Because of a budget shortfall, SAG's cutting its staff by 8%, or 35 people out of 440, report the trades, LA Times and blogs (see SAGWatch for links). No word on whether any top-level staffers will go. One source said that all names known internally are clerks and similar staffers...

SAG Board Approves Studio Deal

Posted on April 20, 2009
Voting on party lines, a sharply divided SAG board approved the tentative deal with the studios yesterday by a vote of about 53% to 47%. The deal now goes to the membership for ratification, with a bruising fight promised by the hardline MembershipFirst faction...

SAG & Studios Agree to Tentative Deal

Posted on April 18, 2009
The Screen Actors Guild and the AMPTP (alliance representing studios and producers) reached tentative agreement on a two-year TV/theatrical contract, potentially ending a ten-month stalemate that halted production of most studio movies and put thousands of people out of work...

SAG Stalemate Update

Posted on April 17, 2009
The Screen Actors Guild stalemate grinds on. Variety says there are back-channel talks with studio heads, but it?s hard to know whether talks are actually in progress or, if any, how substantive they are. These rumors have persisted off and on for almost two months at least...

SAG and the Studios: The Next Roadblocks

Posted on April 06, 2009
Last year proved that time is not on SAG?s side. Recall that the union?s then-leadership wanted better terms in new media than the other Hollywood unions got. Without leverage, all SAG achieved was stalemate, and it?s had no contract with the studios since last June...

SAG-AFTRA Ad Deal Done

Posted on April 01, 2009
Score one for labor. SAG and AFTRA jointly reached a deal late last night with the advertising industry, retaining the current lucrative compensation structure for broadcast network commercials, and largely resisting the industry?s attempt to reduce pension and health contributions...

SAG-AFTRA Commercials Update

Posted on March 24, 2009
Small moves by each side, but movement nonetheless, characterizes the ongoing commercials contract negotiations being held in New York between SAG and AFTRA jointly and the advertising industry, according to a source close to the talks. The unions retain the option of seeking a strike authorization, the source added, but are not planning to do so as yet, given the incremental progress being made...

Hollywood Crew Deal Ratified

Posted on March 21, 2009
As expected, the membership of IATSE, the union representing Hollywood crew members, ratified that organization?s proposed contract with the studios yesterday, although not without significant opposition. The new contract takes effect August 1 and runs for three years, as is usual with Hollywood labor agreements...

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