Biggest Tool of the Week

Judge Refers 'Porno-Trolling' Law Firm to Feds

  LOS ANGELES (CN) - A law firm that made millions suing people for illegally downloading porn movies may face a criminal probe after a federal judge fined it more than $81,000 for "brazen misconduct and relentless fraud."
     U.S. District Judge Otis Wright on Monday ordered Prenda Law to pay more than $40,000 in attorney's fees and costs to a John Doe defendant, then doubled that amount to more than $81,000.
     "This punitive multiplier is justified by plaintiffs' brazen misconduct and relentless fraud," Wright wrote in his 11-page order.
     He said the sanction applies to the law firm; principals John Steele, Paul Hansmeier and Paul Duffy; Prenda attorney Brett Gibbs; and shell companies AF Holdings and Ingenuity 13.

Read more on the Courthouse News Service

Big Deal of the Week

Warner Bros. Wins Lawsuit Over Fictional Technology in 'Dark Knight Rises'

In last summer's blockbuster film, The Dark Knight Rises, Anne Hathaway plays Selina Kyle, who attempts to get her hands on a software program that will erase her criminal history from every computer database in the world. At one moment of the film, this character (who would later become Catwoman) tells Batman, "Wayne says you can get me the clean slate.” 

Read More on the Hollywood Reporter

Suicide Blame May Have Defamed Boston Rocker

(CN) - The ex-wife of Boston lead singer Brad Delp may be liable for blaming the rocker's suicide on guitarist Tom Scholz, a Massachusetts appeals court ruled.

      A courtroom feud between Tom Scholz, a founder of the band Boston, and Micki Delp, ex-wife of its late lead singer Brad Delp, may have come to an end with a judge’s dismissal of Scholz’s defamation claim against her. The Boston Herald, however, remains a target of Scholz’s lawsuit.

Read more on Boston.com

Big Fight of the Week

Variety Owner Jay Penske Sued: The $500,000 Sponsorship That Crossed the Line

 Lawyer Steven Morris said Penske refused to honor a joint venture signed last year between Variety and his client, Beverly Hills Media Group, before Penske bought the trade from Reed Elsevier. And so Penske just cancelled it, after first trying to negotiate different terms.

Read More on The Wrap

Big Deal of the Week

Friends With Better Lives’ Gets Series Order At CBS

CBS has given a series order to multi-camera comedy pilot Friends With Better Lives, which I hear CBS topper Les Moonves who developed Friends back in his Warner Bros. days, had been hailing as a potential new incarnation of the blockbuster NBC comedy. With its setup as a young ensemble, Friends With Better Lives could certainly become a successor to CBS’ departing comedy How I Met Your Mother

Read More on Deadline Hollywood

Big Tool of the Week

Disney's Attempt To Trademark 'Dia De Los Muertos' Gets Social Media Talking

     The minute the Latino community learned Disney would no longer be seeking to trademark "Dia de los Muertos," the name of the traditional "Day of the Dead" celebrated by millions in Mexico, social media was a aflutter with opinions voicing a mix of anger and ridicule.  After Lalo Alcaraz learned of Disney's plan, the cartoonist had an idea.

     The Los Angeles-based humorist created a movie poster that quickly went viral of a skeletal Godzilla-sized Mickey Mouse, with the words: "It's coming to trademark your cultura (culture)."

Read more on the Huffington Post

Broadcast ax: Cancelled shows 2012-13
 

by James Hibberd

The 2012-13 broadcast season has racked up quite a high body count. In fact, there’s been 18 cancellations (and counting!) in the last 48 hours as networks prepare for their upfront presentations to advertisers in New York City next week (including six sitcoms on NBC alone).

Here’s a list of shows this season that were either cancelled or were put out to pasture with a “final season order” (the nice version of cancelled):

Deception (NBC): Cancelled.

Animal Practice (NBC): Put down.

Do No Harm (NBC): Harmed.

30 Rock (NBC): Over.

Guys with Kids (NBC): You can’t believe how cancelled this is.

The Office (NBC): Closed.

Smash (NBC): Smushed.

Up All Night (NBC): Christina Applegate quit: This was cancelled … by its own star!

Whitney (NBC): Thankfully.

1600 Penn (NBC): Impeached.

Made in Jersey (CBS): Terminated.

Private Practice (ABC): Spin-off heaven.

Partners (CBS): Dumped

Ben & Kate (Fox): & Cancelled.

Vegas (CBS): Lost.

Go On (NBC): Get out.

Fringe (Fox): R.I.P.

Touch (Fox): Touchable.

The Job (CBS): What?

The Mob Doctor (Fox): Ha! That title. Yeah. Deceased.

Don’t Trust the B– in Apt. 23 (ABC): Speaking of: Did anyone really believe a comedy with “B—-” in the title was going to
last?

666 Park Avenue (ABC): Hellbound.

Last Resort (ABC): Indeed.

Rules of Engagement (CBS): Broken.

Golden Boy (CBS): Tarnished.

CSI: NY (CBS): Two down, one to go.

Zero Hour (ABC): Zero something all right.

Emily Owens, M.D. (The CW): Crashed.

How to Live with Your Parents (ABC): Evicted.

Red Widow (ABC): Exterminated.

Body of Proof (ABC): D.O.A.

The New Normal (NBC): Or not.

Family Tools (ABC): Put away.

Malibu Country (ABC): Overthrown.

Happy Endings (ABC): Until this happened.

90210 (The CW): Finished.

Cult (The CW): Unfollowed.

UPDATES TO COME…. REFRESH FOR LATEST…

THESE ARE SOME SHOWS STILL ON BUBBLE OR FATE UNCONFIRMED:

Hannibal (NBC)

Big Fight of the Week

LMFAO are being sued by their former  management firm to the tune of $7 million.

Personal management company  RPMGRP sued the group in Santa Monica Superior Court for breach of contract,  tortious interference and accounting. RPMGRP says LMFAO signed a deal with  manager Rene McLean for two years in 2008, with a commission that is gradually  phased out over the following five years.  

Read More: At Artists Direct

Big Deal of the Week

The Los Angeles-based street artist Thierry Guetta, better known as Mr Brainwash, has lost a copyright case involving a 1977 photograph of the punk rock musician Sid Vicious shot by the British photographer Dennis Morris. Guetta had claimed that the seven works he created using Morris’s black and white photograph, including one mural and one collage made of broken vinyl records, were sufficiently altered to be protected by the fair use defence, which allows for the use of copyrighted material for commentary, criticism and parody.

Read More At The Art Newspaper