The Illinois Business Law Journal

Political "Celebrity" Ads and the Right of Publicity

I. Introduction

With the 2008 presidential campaign expected to break spending records, it is no surprise that both major political parties are flooding swing-state airwaves with television advertisements.  While recent elections have produced the much-discussed "swift boat" and "3 a.m." commercials, the McCain campaign took a unique approach with the summer release of the so-called Barack Obama "celebrity" ad.[1] In response to the enthusiasm generated by large U.S. and European crowds at Obama's public appearances, the McCain campaign featured images of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton in an ad that characterized Obama as "the biggest celebrity in the world."[2]  Such unauthorized use of celebrity images in political advertisements has been the subject of recent debate, as any potential legal actions implicate the tension between the right of publicity and the First Amendment.

Union Strikes, Hollywood Style

The Writers Guild of America recently made history by striking, and bringing a halt to the production of television shows in Hollywood.  The Writers Guild of America East and the Writers Guild of America West came together to gain rights in new media distribution of their work. [1]  This article will look at this instance of a union strike and discuss the law surrounding union strikes in the United States.

Disney World Not Required to Allow Segway Use

In 2004, the Walt Disney Company officially banned Segway Personal Transporter vehicles from their theme parks. [1] These upright, two-wheel scooters allow those who can stand but not walk an easier method of navigation and greater degree of freedom than that afforded by wheelchairs. [2] They also permit visitors able to traverse short distances but not those required to satisfactorily enjoy a theme park the ability to experience things like the lengthy World Showcase at Epcot. [3] The company received widespread criticism for their decision, particularly from disabled park attendants. But, considered from a rational and legal rather than emotional or personal perspective, the decision makes a great degree of sense.

Careful Where You Click: End User License Agreements Contain Information You Need To Know

How many people actually read the "fine print" of product license agreements before opening a new software package or deploying the radio button next to "I Agree" and going about their business? Doing so on a regular basis before unwrapping new acquisitions or utilizing new software would be prudent for anyone, even when downloading seemingly innocuous shareware or dealing with well-established and renowned corporations such as Microsoft. Although courts have recently started to relax their strict enforcement of these End User License Agreements ("EULA") or Software Agreements, for the most part people are still bound to abide by the terms to which they so quickly and thoughtlessly acquiesce.

Financing Space Assets and Private Business Entities - Part II

III. Debtor’s Rights and Related Rights
A. Background 
     Since space assets require huge amount of money, the space industry takes a great effort to get finance for manufacturing and maintaining them. Large scale entities use their own surplus and other smaller ones tend to form a consortium to get finance.[1]  If they don’t get enough finance, they will cooperate with private-sector investors like investment banks but private-sector investors want to have a security agreement on the specific space asset or the future cash-flow from operating the asset or equipment to make sure to collect money.[2]  Most satellite manufacturers such as Boeing Satellite Systems, Motorola, and Mitsubishi Electronic actively participate in the project financing with major investment and commercial banks such as Morgan Stanley Senior Funding, Inc, UBS Investment Bank, Citibank, Deutsche Bank, and Goldman, Sachs & Co.[3] 
     However, it is hard to determine which jurisdiction or law is applied to the security agreement because each State has a different security law and space assets are in the space moving around over the world.[4]  It would be a big hurdle for business entities to get finance easily; private-sector financiers would not want to support financing or charge higher security interest.[5] 
     The Cape Town Convention tries to solve this problem through the Protocol. The main purpose of the Protocol is to make an internationally unified treaty on security agreements and the attached protocol to reflect the unique characteristic of each space asset.[6]  They would solve the problems because of the difference of security laws of each State. The unified policy would make financing easier for space business entities so that it would promote the space commerce and commercialization of space assets ultimately.[7]   

Art Imitates Art: Bollywood Finds Inspiration in Hollywood Films

       Many Americans do not know about Bollywood, but the rest of the world definitely does.  The largest movie industry in the world, Bollywood movies sell 3.6 billion tickets in comparison to Hollywood's 2.6 billion tickets in the year 2004. [1]  It is estimated that this year Bollywood made £1.26 billion [2] (approximately $2.6 billion US), and Bollywood has a projected growth of nineteen percent each year. [3]  Part of the way that Bollywood is able to keep making movies that gross lots of money is to take successful films from Hollywood and remake them into Bollywood blockbusters.  Movies such as Entrapment and ET have been made into Bollywood productions by changing the story to make it more akin to a musical than straight theater and making the characters more identifiable to Indian culture.  Almost eighty percent of all Bollywood films has been "inspired" by a Hollywood film. [4]  These similarities are quite apparent to people who have seen the inspirations, but to the Indian public, these movies become box office hits.  This raises a question about the ability of Bollywood screenwriters to use Hollywood storylines to create Bollywood films.  This article will examine copyright law and how it may affect this area of business.

Rhode Island Station Fire Responsibility Falls upon Multiple Shoulders to Varying Degrees

On February 20, 2003, the rock band Great White climbed onstage at the Station nightclub in West Warwick, Rhode Island. [1] Shortly thereafter, the band’s tour manager David Bichele decided to light pyrotechnics as a stage prop, despite lacking the necessary permits and not having notified the club’s owners of his intentions. [2] Sparks from the explosives ignited the flammable foam soundproofing material that lined the nightclub’s walls and rapidly engulfed the small room in flames. [3] Ultimately one hundred patrons perished and more than two hundred others sustained injuries, either from directly encountering the flames, inhaling toxic fumes, or being crushed while attempting to exit the building. [4] Was the blame for this debacle properly and proportionately distributed?

Writer's Guild of America: A thing of the past?

    The television and film industry relies on the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) for its arbitration employed because lengthy litigation would disrupt studio strategy, damage individual worker's career development and potentially impact revenue to the degree that the result would be the failure of business enterprises altogether. With all the reality, unscripted, and animation television does the WGA have enough clout to make the demands it needs to prove useful to Hollywood writers? Court rely on its a procedure to ensure efficiency. Who will bear this burden if the WGA proves to be unsustainable?

Financing Space Assets and Private Business Entities (Part I)

I. Introduction

A. Space Technology and Law

     Have you ever thought about who owns the satellite when you listen to the satellite radio, or watch satellite television? While society benefits from the satellite technology such as satellite television, radio, navigation, phone and so on, international organizations, governments and space industry are disputing over the ownership of the satellites, what space assets are, and how to get financing. Likewise, defining space assets and the protection of financiers to space assets is very new and critical for the entertainment and space industries. This is because of the tremendous capital and interest of investors is related to space assets and they have great potential to be developed more.
     Although the space technology contributes to the entertainment industry only with the satellite technology for now, it is being developed and improved. A lot of investors are willing to involve the space technology and industry because they can see the potential of the space technology and space assets. Also, commercial space means business to entrepreneurs. 
    However, it also has a big risk, for example, when the satellite or spaceship explodes before or after launching or it loses its orbit, investors lose their money and efforts. Also, as the space assets are mobile and cannot stay in a certain jurisdiction, it makes defining the ownership of space assets more difficult. Therefore, investors and governments want to be secure and try to set a legal protection. Representatively, the UNIDROIT, International Institute for the Unification of Private Law,[1]  makes a great effort to gather all people involved the space industry and they discuss to legislate a uniform international space law for the private sector.
         

The Federal Communication Commission: Changing Television Through Censorship?

     During award shows, viewers often tune in to see celebrities in their gowns, who will win which awards and the antics of live television.  Often times, live television allows for spontaneous speech including swears and curse words to air.  The First Amendment of the Constitution states that "Congress shall make no law [...] abridging the freedom of speech or the press...." [1]  However, the Federal Communication Commission often steps in and creates regulations that prohibit foul language on television.  The recent Academy Awards cut away from a thank you speech by Sally Field to a black screen as a result of the topic of her speech.  A new documentary, entitled "The War", is to air on PBS in an edited form to remove foul language.  This article will look at these instances and question the necessity of the FCC to prohibit such speech in these contexts and how the courts have viewed this issue in the past.