Lawsuit doesn't seem to have changed 'Project Runway'

By Eriq Gardner

Why are we so interested in a fashion design competition?

If you'll recall, after the Weinstein Co. announced the surprising move of "Project Runway" from Bravo to Lifetime last year, NBC Universal filed a breach of contract claim and won an injunction to prevent the move. Lifetime intervened in the case, and the whole yarn on the show almost unraveled before the parties were able to stitch together a settlement in April.

Much speculation has followed about whether the show would be the same or undergo some kind of makeover to satisfy the litigation settlement. But from the looks of the trailer (below), the producers seem to have gone out of their way to assure fans that all the familiar elements will remain the same.

And oh yeah, Bravo still has its Project Runway website up live.

Filmmakers fighting back in 'Bananas!*' documentary lawsuit

By Eriq Gardner

Earlier this month, Dole Food Company filed an interesting defamation action against makers of a documentary called "Bananas!*", which features Nicaraguan banana laborers fighting a class action lawsuit against the company.

Dole claimed that filmmaker Fredrik Gertten and others affiliated with the production showed "actual malice" against the food giant by ignoring a court's decision to throw out a $2.5 million punitive award due to fraud on the part of the attorney who represented the plaintiffs.

Now Gertten and fellow producer Margarete Jangard are fighting back, hiring first amendment lawyer Lincoln Bandlow of Lanthrop & Gage to defend them in the court case. Bandlow says he will "demonstrate that the lawsuit is simply one part of Dole's overall strategy to stifle debate about an issue of great public importance.”

We're not aware of any official response to the complaint yet, but if the lawyer is talking about stifling debate, we're guessing Dole will probably face an anti-SLAPP suit.

Bandlow also seems to take issue with Dole's characterization of the film, saying it showed the tough cross examination of the workers and later the holding by the court that the action was tainted by fraud.

Record industry now 2-for-2 in file-sharing trials

By Eriq Gardner

Updating the Joel Tenenbaum case: The record labels have won the case.

Judge Nancy Gertner made the victory for the plaintiffs official last night after reviewing cross examination of the defendant. On the witness stand, Tenenbaum was asked by plaintiff's attorney Tim Reynolds, whether he was "now admitting liability for downloading and distributing all 30 sound recordings that are at issue." 

Tenenbaum answered, "Yes."

As such, Judge Gertner reconsidered the record labels' motion for summary judgment despite the protestations of Tenenbaum's lawyers. The trial will continue with more witnesses and closing statements, although the only thing left to be examined is willfulness and damages.

This makes the industry two-for-two in trials against alleged pirates and also clearly establishes Reynolds' rising star in the entertainment litigation world. The partner at Holme Roberts & Owen recently made our Power Lawyers list. 

UPDATE: Ben Sheffner tweets: "Verdict in Joel Tenenbaum case: 22,500 per work. $675,000 total."

Annie Leibovitz battles to keeps assets

By Eriq Gardner

Working with publications like Vogue, Vanity Fair, and Rolling Stone, Annie Leibovitz has made quite the career photographing Hollywood's elite talent. But the famed shutterfly may be suffering some severe financial problems and potentially losing a lot of her valuable property.

Here's a snapshot: Art Capital Group, a consultancy group, says in a new lawsuit against Leibovitz that it arranged $24 million in secured credit for her to help pay down mortgage obligations, tax liens and unpaid bills to service providers and other creditors. In return, the company claims Leibovitz put up as collateral for the loan her fine art, intellectual property and real estate assets. The secured loan agreement also gave Art Capital Group the right of first refusal to act as Leibovitz's agent with respect to any assets, including her art, the company says.

The complaint says, "Notwithstanding the clear Sales Agreement and the candid and fair negotiations, Ms. Liebovitz and the Liebovitz Entities now seemingly pretend that they do not understand the Sales Agreement and seek to ignore their obligations under it."

Art Capital Group is seeking a declaratory judgement that the agreement is in full force and it is her exclusive agent and can sell her art and property.

Joel Tenenbaum file-sharing trial doesn't disappoint

By Eriq Gardner

Pirate Bay may be sticking around for now, but Hollywood is having better luck on another antipiracy front.

The second ever P2P file-sharing case to go to trial is under way. You'll remember the Joel Tenenbaum case as the Harvard law school project run by professor Charles Nesson, who has done crazy things like crowd-sourcing a brief, getting on the Yale judge's nerves, and pushing to webcast the trial.

Unfortunately, Nesson wasn't successful on that last one because we would have loved to watch his entertaining opening statement, where he took scissors out and cut up plastic foam to make a point about, um, something about file-sharing.

The theatrics don't seem to be working, as one of his other attorneys in the case, Matthew Feinberg, blurted out in court yesterday, "We're admitting liability, your honor." Hmm. What do they teach at Harvard?

The case continues, although most legal observers are expecting a guilty verdict before the big fight over the amount of damages in the case. It's possible that by the end of August, there will be two cases — this and the Jammie Thomas-Rasset case — swirling up the appeals circuits.

With any luck, Sonia Sotomayor will be confirmed in time to convince her Supreme Court colleagues to allow cameras so we can post Nesson trying to make a point about the constitutionality of excessive damages using a toy fire engine truck.

Pirate Bay deal inches along, despite studio lawsuit

By Eriq Gardner

Hollywood's fight to put the kibosh on the new Pirate Bay may not be going so well.

Earlier in the week, a dozen film studios filed a lawsuit asking a Swedish court for an injunction to prevent the site from continuing to illegally distribute copyrighted material. At the time, questions swirled over whether Global Gaming Factory X, which announced a deal earlier in the month to purchase Pirate Bay for about $8 million, could raise the funds needed for a takeover. Wayne Rosso, former Grokster CEO who was involved in GGF, said he wasn't confident about that.

A lot has changed in a few days, however.

GGF CEO Hans Pandeya has issued a statement saying the company is in "final negotiations with a global player on a 'hunt pirates Agreement' which is expected to serve as a model for the entertainment industry."

We've never heard of a "hunt pirates agreement," but we hope it's better than Bertelsmann's foolish agreement seven years ago to buy out Napster and turn it legit. After the German media giant bought Napster, it was hit with big lawsuits, including a $17 billion claim by music publishers. The company later settled with EMI and Universal, among other companies.

Who is GGF's white knight? Hopefully, we'll find out soon, but in the meantime, GGF's share price has surged 150 percent to 15 cents following the news. Or maybe investors are tickled that the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is holding hearings today on "Inadvertent File Sharing Over Peer-To-Peer Networks." Unfortunately for users of Pirate Bay, the hearing explores risks posed to national security, not what Jammie Thomas' children did on their school recess.

Louisiana film recruiter sentenced to two years for tax credit bribery

By Eriq Gardner

After Hurricane Katrina, Louisiana began offering nice tax incentives to film production companies who pledged to set up shop in the state. As a result, film and television production there boomed, from $12 million in 2002 to more than $1 billion annually today.

Now comes some shocking news about the guy whose job it was to recruit movie companies to make films in Louisiana.

Mark Smith has been sentenced to two years in prison for accepting bribes from a film producer in exchange for giving away too many lucrative state tax credits.

Smith cooperated with federal investigators after a two-year probe uncovered $135,000 worth of bribes channeled from Malcom Petal, the co-founder of LIFT Prods. through a local attorney named William Bradley. Both Petal and Bradley have pleaded guilty. 

As one example of the corruption, The Times-Picayune reported LIFT was responsible for exaggerating production costs on Kevin Costner's Mr. Brooks. The film was cleared for tax credits based on $34 million in expenditures despite a stated budget of less than $20 million. In some instances, productions got great tax credits and were allowed to sell unused ones to investors who had nothing to do with film production. 

"We live with the damage today," said U.S. District Judge Kurt Engelhardt at Smith's sentencing yesterday.

Palestinian group threatens 'Bruno'

By Eriq Gardner

When "Borat" arrived in theaters, Sasha Baron Cohen was hit with a ton of lawsuits from people who claimed they had been fraudulently duped into appearing in the film. Other than the lawsuit from the "victim" of a bingo charity game fight, the actor and Universal have escaped the same kind of legal wrath in the aftermath of the release of "Bruno."

Or should we say, unlucky?

According to Box Office Mojo, "Bruno" has raked in about $82 million in worldwide gross to date — a far cry from the $261 million that "Borat" garnered.

Maybe Universal would gladly accept the lawsuits if more people were going to see the film. Maybe the lack of lawsuits is an indication that for all of the film's purported outrageousness, "Bruno" simply isn't culturally shocking enough to draw crowds and get under the skin of potential litigants.

Of course, there's still time. One community may be ready to help out on the lawsuit front.

According to UK's Telegraph, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a group of West Bank Palestinian insurgents plan to file a lawsuit. (Does Islamic law address defamation and rights of publicity? We're not sure.) In "Bruno," Cohen implores Martyrs Brigade leader Ayman Abu Aita to kidnap him. "I want to be famous," Bruno says. "I want the best guys in the business to kidnap me. Al-Qaeda is so 2001."

Honestly, this may have been the most risqué part of the film because it's hard to believe Ayman Abu Aita was in on the joke. Now Martyrs Brigade may file a lawsuit for the "dirty use of our brother." Hey, it just might be the marketing opportunity that "Bruno" desperately needs.

Patent fight brewing over podcasting and downloads

By Eriq Gardner

Patent troll alert!

VoloMedia has announced it's been awarded a patent for a method for "providing episodic media," which it claims covers podcasting and all episodic media downloads.

Company CEO Murgesh Navar made the announcement on its website in somewhat of a bizarre fashion.

Navar starts out by introducing his patent before getting a little defensive. "I do not wish to debate the merits of the U.S. patent system, but just acknowledge there are two sides to the issue of patent awards..."

If that's not a hint that VoloMedia plans to demand licensing fees and sue if necessary, how about this? "VoloMedia's intent is to continue to work collaboratively with key participants in the industry, leveraging its unique range of products to further grow and accelerate the market," Navar writes. (boldface ours)

Not convinced? OK, how about the name of a possible target?

"There will come a day when all the content on Hulu is available as an episodic download," he writes.

In other words, if Hulu ever decides to switch from commercial-supported streaming to paid downloads, VoloMedia will be watching. But forget Hulu. We just downloaded the second season of Mad Men from the iTunes Store. VoloMedia probably thinks it deserves a cut, of course. In an interview with NewTeeVee, Navar says he's in talks with Apple and TV networks, among others, "about growing the business and market."

Growing whose business?

UMG resolves Nashville scammer lawsuit

By Eriq Gardner

Earlier this month, Universal Music Group sued a Nashville individual named Robert Metzgar who allegedly had tricked many musicians into believing he was part of the music conglom. In the lawsuit, UMG said that these artists had stormed into the company's Nashville office claiming to be owed as much as $100,000.

It was a strange story — with Metzgar claiming he was fatally ill, had signed a deal with a UMG subsidiary, and that one of UMG's executives had extorted and blackmailed him.

Metzgar then hired John Griffin, Jr. at Kay, Griffin to be his attorney. According to Metzgar, he had planned to file a $50 million counterclaim against Universal.

But Metzgar now says the dispute has been resolved. He says he "paid no damages, UMG has gotten their half of the label Platinum Plus Universal Records and I have not surrendered anything on my claim to the Smokey River Boys product & royalties."

Griffin confirms this, telling us that papers will be filed in court today by UMG to dismiss its lawsuit.