Copyrights, Tweets, and Kanye West?

We are lucky to live in an era where all the information we need is just a click away. We can hear access all kinds of news and commentary to learn from other people’s mistakes. A great place to be able to learn from the mistakes made in the entertainment industry is www.entertainmentlawupdate.com. On this website we can access different podcasts that can give us insight on different lawsuits.

The first podcast that caught my eye was titled “What’s with all the Zombies?” During this podcast they discussed the 80’s Hair Band Poison who is being sued for allegedly stealing songs from twenty-five years ago. The Billboard.biz article “Hair Band War! Did Poison Steal ‘80s Hits From Another Band?”  states that guitarist C.C. DeVille was part of the Chicago band Kid Rocker before joining Poison. Billy McCarthy and James Stonich is suing Poison because they feel that DeVille copied their songs which became Poison hit songs. In the podcast they discuss that the big issue is the fact that it has been twenty-five years since the Poison album in which McCarthy and Stonich state their songs appear, and the main argument has been the statute of limitation. One of the points given is that the band Poison continued the wrong by performing the songs for many years after their release, but many courts have not agreed with this argument. This particular case shows us two different things. First, DO NOT STEAL OTHER PEOPLES MUSIC OR ANYTHING for that matter. Second, if someone steals your music or anything else, make sure you sue them before years have passed.

“Monkeying Around with Copyright Law” obviously discusses copyright law.  Marcie Cobbaert, a photographer, sued Lifetime and A&E for improperly featuring her copyrighted photographs on the most recent season of Project Runway. Cobbaert never consented for her photos to be used on the show or the show website, and she was against the photos being used. Marcie Cobbaert is asking for statutory damages, but according to the podcast she will not receive the statutory damages, because she did not file the copyright before the photos were used, instead she filed right before the law suit. The lesson learned from this case is that you must copyright your works immediately!

The final podcast that caught my eye was “Can Kanye write songs 140 characters at a time?” They discuss how Jimmy Kimmel and Josh Groban did a skit about Kanye West’s tweets. The question that arose from this skit was if tweets are protected by copyright. This skit was not a dispute, but according to the podcast it can potentially be. New technologies bring new types of lawsuits. During the podcast discusses what could potentially be copyrighted. The argument presented during the podcast is if Josh Groban had gone and recorded an actual album to sell, would they have to get copyright permission from Kanye West. I believe that if another person is using someone else’s tweets to gain monetary income, then the original tweet should be considered a copyrighted work. I strongly believe that if Josh Groban made money off Kanye West’s tweet, Kanye should receive royalties. This particular podcast brings to light the potential for new lawsuits. Our world and our industry is ever-changing, and we must always be on the look out for the next potential liability.