I found these podcasts to be mostly
informative as to what is required to break into entertainment law, and what
qualities are most useful in this field of law. The ASU law blog commented on
the copyright infringement case filed last year by the tattoo artist who
designed and tattooed Mike Tyson’s face tattoo against Warner Brothers. The suit was filed over the tattoo seen on Ed
Helm’s face in The Hangover 2, which is the same as the one Mike Tyson
has. The artist was trying to block the
opening of the movie, but the hosts of the podcast state that the case will
likely be settled as parody and rule that the tattoo is fair use. As we know
now, the movie did open on time, which served as a major strike against the
tattoo artist. In the law school
interactive podcast, Larry Zerner uses Charlie Sheen’s contractual issues with
Two and a Half Men as an example of entertainment law at work. The law school
interactive podcast featured three entertainment lawyers who spoke about their
definition of entertainment law, and what is encompassed under this field. They also state that traditional law school
may not fully prepare a student for entertainment law. One tip that I thought was very good to hear
was that an entertainment lawyers ability to negotiate will be one of their
most powerful assets.
Another case discussed in these
podcasts was a trademark case for a suit filed by Eastland Music Group over the
movie 50/50. The group represents a
music group that uses the same name. The
judge in the case watched the movie and then ruled that the title was relevant
to the movie in that it described the main character’s chances of surviving his
battle with cancer. The ruling was that there was no similarity to the music
group, even though the name was the same.
