A class action seeks money because a movie compendium whose promotional literature described it as containing “All of the Bond films gathered for the first time in this one-of-a-kind box set” lacked the 1967 David Niven spoof version of Casino Royale and 1983’s Never Say Never Again. The latter is sometimes denied canonical status by Bond-film buffs even though it stars Sean Connery, having been made by a screenwriter who had worked with Ian Fleming “to create the Thunderball story and was given the green light by a London court to make his own film after claiming co-authorship of the characters and elements.” MGM responds that a reasonable consumer would not have been misled because the box set package and its promotion list the films it includes. [Ashley Cullins, Hollywood Reporter]
Posts Tagged ‘movies film and videos’
“Austin man sues date for texting during movie”
By reader acclaim: “A man is suing a Round Rock woman for texting during a movie date at the Barton Creek Square theater, according to a petition filed in small claims court in Travis County. Brandon Vezmar, 37, of Austin filed the claim Thursday against his date. He is asking for $17.31, which was the price of the movie ticket to a 3D showing of “Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2,” he told the American-Statesman Tuesday.” [Austin American-Statesman] Image: Wikimedia Commons. More: Lowering the Bar (doesn’t seem like good strategy if plaintiff ever wants to date again).
Free speech roundup
- “Spanish woman given jail term for tweeting jokes about Franco-era assassination” [The Guardian]
- If California Attorney General Xavier Becerra’s 15-felony complaint and arrest warrant against activist filmmakers David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt is a vendetta, it’s one motivated by speech. That’s serious [Jacob Sullum]
- “A.B. 1104 — a censorship bill so obviously unconstitutional, we had to double check that it was real.” [EFF on stalled California bill to ban “fake news,” introduced by Assemblymember Ed Chau (D-Monterey Park)] “Germany approves bill curbing online hate crime, fake news” [AP/Yahoo, earlier]
- “Another Free Speech Win In Libel Lawsuit Disguised As A Trademark Complaint” [Tim Cushing, TechDirt; criticism of doctor’s experimental treatment methods]
- Punching a hole out of Section 230: new “sex trafficking” bill could have far-reaching consequences for web content and platforms [Elizabeth Nolan Brown, Reason]
- One section of a Maine bill would bar state’s attorney general from investigations or prosecutions based on political speech [HP 0551; Kevin at Lowering the Bar is critical of bill]
“11 Classic Films In the Public Domain”
A list of classic films that entered the public domain includes some cautionary lessons for copyright lawyers, exhibitors, and others. [Matthew Jackson, Mental Floss]
Judge blocks California law on publishing actors’ ages
“A federal judge has barred the State of California from enforcing a new law limiting online publication of actors’ ages.” The actor’s union SAG-AFTRA, the measure’s chief advocate, had aimed it against online movie database IMDB, claiming that the goal of preventing employment discrimination outweighed any First Amendment concerns about banning publication of truthful information. A judge disagreed. [Josh Gerstein, Politico; Eugene Volokh; Gabrielle Carteris/Hollywood Reporter]
January 25 roundup
- Four views of the Trump conflicts plan [Milan Markovic/Legal Ethics Forum, Prof. Bainbridge, Andrew Grewal series, Max Kennerly, earlier on Morgan Lewis] And the paper that summarizes the views of President’s most vocal critics [Norman Eisen, Richard Painter, and Laurence Tribe, Brookings, earlier on Emoluments Clause]
- Five years after filing, Michigan consumer’s unusual suit against makers of Ryan Gosling movie ‘Drive’ grinds on [Eriq Gardner, Hollywood Reporter]
- A law unto themselves: Indian tribe expulsions and related governance issues can trample member rights [Brooke Jarvis, New York Times Magazine (“The ejection of tribal members is most prevalent in small tribes with casinos on their land”), earlier on Nooksack controversy]
- “The False Promise of ‘Buy American'” [Dan Ikenson, Cato]
- State travel sanctions against other states: a bad idea in themselves, an insult to constitutional comity, and inevitably a 2-way street [Samantha Allen, The Daily Beast]
- Obama HUD’s far-reaching AFFH (Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing) scheme now being portrayed unconvincingly as just slight extension of earlier law [Vanessa Brown Calder]
Disabled rights roundup
- Wall Street Journal covers surge in web accessibility suits [Sara Randazzo, WSJ] State and local governments comment on federal proposals for public sector web accessibility;
- “Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Title III lawsuits are up 63 percent over 2015, according to law firm Seyfarth Shaw.” [Insurance Journal]
- “Drive-by” ADA suits in Austin, Tex.: “Lawyer sanctioned $175,000 for phony email, offensive comments” [Ryan Autullo, Austin American-Statesman] Arizona mass-filing attorney responds to professional conduct complaint [East Valley Tribune, earlier]
- “Airlines seek to limit types of therapy animals allowed on planes” [L.A. Times]
- “Fired for being (twice) intoxicated on the job, a mechanic for the D.C.-area transit authority undergoes treatment, applies for his job back. But his bosses refuse, allegedly because of his alcoholism. An ADA violation? Indeed, says the D.C. Circuit.” [Alexander v. WMATA as summarized on John Ross, Short Circuits]
- Department of Justice unveils ADA regulation requiring movie theaters to offer captioning and audio description [Federal Register]
Free speech roundup
- New, much-anticipated documentary Can We Take a Joke? When Outrage and Comedy Collide [on demand, Greg Lukianoff] More on the fining of comedian Mike Ward by the Quebec Human Rights Tribunal [Guardian, earlier]
- “It is not ‘freedom of the press’ when newspapers and others are allowed to say and write whatever they want even if it is completely false!” [@donaldjtrump Sunday on Twitter] 25 years ago in my stump speech on lawsuit reform I criticized Trump for his use of legal threats to silence critics. More reportage on that history, a familiar topic around here [Frances S. Sellers, Washington Post, earlier here, etc.]
- Eighth Circuit: Nebraska regulators improperly retaliated against financial adviser over (inter alia) his criticism of Obama [Eugene Volokh]
- Nine senators (Boxer, Durbin, Franken, Markey, Reid, Sanders, Schumer, Warren, Whitehouse): we demand 22 right-of-center think tanks open their donation records to us [Carolina Journal]
- “Copyright infringer issues bogus DMCA over someone calling him out. Then denies all of it” [Mike Masnick, TechDirt]
- Lawsuit demanding R ratings on films with “tobacco imagery” deserves to be hit with SLAPP sanctions; “suing the MPAA to force censorship raises the stakes.” [WSJ Law Blog, Scott Greenfield]
Court tosses Paul Brodeur suit over American Hustle microwave scene
Some Overlawyered readers may be familiar with the work of longtime New York writer Paul Brodeur, whose best known book was a critique of the asbestos industry and who went on to write books about what were in some cases less widely accepted public health risks, such as electrical transmission lines. Now an appeals court in California has dismissed a lawsuit Brodeur brought “over a scene in the 2013 film, American Hustle, where defending the notion that microwaves take the nutrition out of food, Jennifer Lawrence comments, ‘It’s not [B.S.]. I read it in an article. Look, by Paul Brodeur.'” Defendants portrayed the film as a “screwball comedy” which explicitly added fictional elements to the real-world ABSCAM scandal, and Lawrence’s character as one whose statements were portrayed as unreliable. The judge cited a number of other factors, including Brodeur’s legal status as a public figure and well-known commentator in the 1970s. [Hollywood Reporter]
“Paramount Copyright Claim on Klingon Language Challenged in Klingon Language”
“The Language Creation Society has filed an amicus brief challenging Paramount’s claim of copyright over the Klingon language in its lawsuit against Axanar, a fan-produced film set in the Star Trek universe….The amicus brief is peppered with Klingon words and phrases.” [Ed Krayewski, Reason] More: Ken White, Popehat. Update: suit moves forward.