The Pitch newsletter is a monthly update of legal issues and news affecting or related to the music, film and television, fine arts, media, professional athletics, eSports, and gaming industries. The Pitch features a diverse cross-section of published articles, compelling news and stories, and original content curated and/or created by Arnall Golden Gregory LLP’s Entertainment & Sports industry team.
“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.” – Thomas Merton
AGG News
We Wish You a Merry Christmas and a Happy . . . Public Domain Day
Some works enter the public domain the moment they are created, such as AI-generated images. Others take their sweet time, so when they finally do arrive, it’s cause for celebration.
Hence, Public Domain Day. This is when, on January 1 of every year, we celebrate copyrights expiring and a fresh batch of works becoming free for anyone to tinker with. For example, on January 1, 2025, the copyright terms ended for thousands of works from 1929 and song recordings from 1924.
(Source: Arnall Golden Gregory LLP, January 17, 2025)
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Industry News
Drake Sues UMG For Defamation Over Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Not Like Us’
Drake has filed a lawsuit against Universal Music Group (UMG) over allegations that the music giant defamed him by promoting Kendrick Lamar’s diss track “Not Like Us,” claiming the label boosted a “false and malicious narrative” that the star rapper was a pedophile and put his life in danger. Hours after his attorneys withdrew an earlier petition, they filed a full-fledged defamation lawsuit Wednesday against his longtime label – claiming UMG knew Lamar’s “inflammatory and shocking allegations” were false but chose to place “corporate greed over the safety and well-being of its artists.”
(Source: Billboard, January 15, 2025) [Subscription required]
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NITO Calls on the FTC to Expand Junk Fee Protections for Fans
The National Independent Talent Organization has called on the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to expand its recent ruling on junk fees on concert tickets. The new rules targeting live event tickets were announced in December, require the full price of a concert ticket to be disclosed upfront, effectively making all-in pricing of concert tickets the national standard. The new rules are scheduled to go into effect in April 2025.
(Source: Celebrity Access, January 13, 2025)
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How the Live Music Industry Is Preparing for a TikTok Ban
If the Supreme Court upholds a U.S. law that would ban TikTok if its Chinese parent company ByteDance fails to sell it by Jan. 19, it would be bad news for the music industry, including the live events business – which has increasingly relied on TikTok as a marketing engine in recent years. A decision by the court could be days, even hours, away, and it will have a major impact on dozens of U.S. industries that rely on the site for marketing, including the live music business during one of its busiest marketing months. TikTok’s popularity among concert and festival marketers has increased significantly in the last two years, explains FanIQ CEO Jesse Lawrence, as the event industry shifts to content-based marketing models.
(Source: Billboard, January 10, 2025) [Subscription required]
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Chicago Cubs Win Round in Wrigley View Rooftop Lawsuit
A federal district judge in Chicago on Jan. 7 advanced a lawsuit brought by the Chicago Cubs against Wrigley View Rooftop, a company that provides 200 guests with a view of neighborhing Wrigley Field in exchange for fees Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman denied Wrigley View Rooftop’s motion to dismiss on grounds that an arbitration provision in a prior settlement agreement is an “improper mechanism” for dismissing the lawsuit. The motion claimed that the case should instead be dispatched to arbitration, not federal court, but Coleman stressed that, per precedent in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (which governs federal district courts in Illinois), motions to dismiss on the basis of venue do not authorize a court to enforce an arbitration provision.
(Source: Sportico, January 10, 2025)
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Crystal Baller: 10 Music Business Predictions About How the Industry Will Shake Out in 2025
Trump will dump the Live Nation antitrust case, companies will shop for acquisitions and streaming services will set themselves apart. Welcome to the year of diss-content.
(Source: Billboard, January 9, 2025) [Subscription required]
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Getty Images, Shutterstock to Combine in $3.7 Billion Deal
Getty Images Holdings and stock-photo rival Shutterstock are merging to form a company worth about $3.7 billion to meet booming demand for licensed images and videos, as artificial intelligence disrupts the business of content creation. Shareholders of Seattle-based Getty will own about 54.7% of the combined company, which will retain the Getty name, at the closing of the deal. Shutterstock shareholders will own the remaining 45.3%, the companies said January 7. They added that together they would be able to offer a more expansive library of visual content for users, as well as a way to synchronize in-house investments in AI tools.
(Source: The Wall Street Journal, January 7, 2025) [Subscription required]
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Padres Family Fight: Seidler’s Widow Sues Brothers for Control
Sheel Kamal Seidler, the widow of late San Diego Padres owner Peter Seidler, is taking legal action to gain control of the MLB team. In a lawsuit filed January 6 in Texas state probate court, Sheel Seidler claims that Bob and Matt Seidler, two of Peter’s brothers, breached their fiduciary duties as trustees of the Seidler Trust that controls the Padres. She claims that the two have, among other things, “irreconcilable conflicts of interest” and conspired to sell trust assets to themselves at “far-below-market prices,” as they “schemed to solidify their control of the Padres.”
(Source: Sportico, January 6, 2025)
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Fubo-Disney Deal Will Create New Sports Streaming Service
Sports fans are about to get yet another option for streaming games. Fubo and Disney’s Hulu + Live TV service will be merging, with Fubo dropping its lawsuit against Disney and ESPN. Fubo told investors on a call January 6 it plans to maintain both the Fubo and Hulu + Live TV brands and create a new sports “skinny bundle” featuring ESPN networks and other channels. That new offering could feature national channels, regional sports networks and digital services such as ESPN+. The ability to create more targeted packages, rather than solely offering a comprehensive, more expensive subscription, was a major issue in Fubo’s previous litigation against Disney and ESPN over plans to launch Venu Sports.
(Source: Sportico, January 6, 2025)
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Michael Jackson Estate's Likeness Fight Stays In Vegas
A Nevada federal judge has declared that her court will decide if an allegedly "lackluster Michael Jackson impersonator show" running at a Las Vegas casino is infringing the name, image or likeness of the late King of Pop. In a ruling from U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro docketed January 15, she turned down efforts by the Jackson estate to dismiss parts of a declaratory judgment action lodged last year by MJL 12 LLC, the production company behind the tribute show "MJ Live," which performs regularly at Harrah's Las Vegas, where it advertises itself as "the #1 Michael Jackson tribute concert in the world."
(Source: Law360, January 3, 2025)
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Bowl Swag Bags Invite Tax Blitz on NIL-Era College Players
Bowl games have long been termed a reward for players, who usually get a trip to a sunny clime, a chance to play a nationally televised exhibition game and a slew of bowl—and sponsor gift bags. In the age of NIL, those rewards now come with something else: tax liability. “One of the big things people look forward to when they play a bowl game is gift bags and gifting suites—but one of the things people don’t realize a lot of times is there is taxation on non-cash gifts,” said Craig Brown, managing principal at Galway Family Office, a financial and tax-planning firm with a specialty among college athletes who earn NIL money.
(Source: Sportico, January 1, 2025)
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2024: The Year College Sports Turned Pro
If 2023 was a year of legal chaos for the NCAA, 2024 was a year of legal transformation. Under the leadership of former Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, the NCAA enjoyed more success in court. The collegiate governing body persuaded judges to uphold the separation of NIL from employment, validate prize money rules and endorse the lawfulness of NCAA enforcement measures. But by negotiating a multibillion-dollar settlement that calls for colleges to pay athletes and by—thus far—failing to stop the advancement of efforts to recognize college athletes as employees, the NCAA is gradually morphing into a variation of a major pro sports league.
(Source: Sportico, December 23, 2024)
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Universal Music Group and Amazon Music Ink New Deal, Including Exclusive Content… and with ‘Streaming 2.0’ at Its Heart
Universal Music Group (UMG) and Amazon Music have jointl announced a renewed worldwide licensing agreement today (December 23). According to a press release, the deal encompasses an “expanded global relationship that will enable further innovation, exclusive content with UMG artists, and advancement of artist-centric principles including increased fraud protection“. The PR claims that the deal will ensure that “UMG’s artists achieve their commercial potential through [Amazon Music’s] continued product enhancements and exclusive content that elevate authentic engagement between artists and fans“.
(Source: Music Business Worldwide, December 23, 2024)
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FTC Bans Hidden Junk Fees in Hotel, Event Ticket Prices
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission passed a rule on December 17 requiring ticket sellers, hotels and vacation rental sites to disclose total prices, including fees upfront, prohibiting them from concealing add-on charges until the last minute. The rule is one of the final pieces of President Joe Biden’s wide-ranging crackdown on junk fees that drive up consumer costs without providing visible benefits. “We all know the experience of encountering a hidden fee at the very last stage of checkout — these junk fees sneak onto your bill and companies end up making you pay more because they can. Those fees add up, taking real money out of the pockets of Americans,” Biden said in a statement.
(Source: CNBC, December 17, 2024)
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The longer you look at an object, the more abstract it becomes, and, ironically, the more real.
—
Lucian Freud
