Raging zBullabaisse

This is a poor attempt at creating a recurring post while rob is travelling.

1. You say lache that, yo holmes lache this

Frank Petrella wrote a screenplay with Jake LaMotta about LaMotta's life, which they copyrighted in 1963. They assigned their rights to the screenplay to United Artists/MGM in 1976, and it became the movie "Raging Bull" in 1980.



Petrella died in 1981 and because of various peculiarities of copyright law, the renewal rights to his copyright in the screenplay passed to his daughter Paula. She renewed the copyright in 1991. In 1998, Paula informed MGM that their exploitation of "Raging Bull" infringed her copyright to the screenplay. She and MGM exchanged correspondence on this matter for two years. Then, in 2009, Paula sued MGM for copyright infringement. MGM asserted a laches defense--Paula waited too long to bring her claim.

I won't bore you with the details, but the case made its way to the Supreme Court. Justice Ginsburg (whose daughter is a copyright professor) wrote the opinion of the Court, holding that laches was not a bar and that Paula could receive damages for MGM's infringement over the past 3 years (the statute of limitations for copyright infringement is 3 years). So when someone else starts making money by ripping off our Ghooghles and Gheorghemas posts, let's wait until they start making millions before we sue them.

2. Jack Urbont ain't nothing ta lache wit

This development is particularly relevant to Jack Urbont. I previously noted Ghostface Killah's potential laches defense against Mr. Urbont but it looks like that won't hold up now. This may become important because last month Judge Buchwald wrote what appears to be an open letter to Pretty Tone stating that "you failed to appear for a deposition scheduled for April 30, 2014 and ... you have not produced a single document since July 19, 2013." She also said she would sanction him if he doesn't appear for his deposition and fulfill his other discovery obligations.

I think it's odd that Mr. Urbont has had problems locating and deposing The Kid given that he appeared on a reality TV show which required him to live in a house with a bunch of crazy people.



I also note that the last time Ghostdini was in one of these copyright infringement scrapes he never entered an appearance, he just laid in the cut and let his record label win the case. See Abilene Music, Inc. v. Sony Music Entertainment, Inc., 320 F. Supp. 2d 84 (S.D.N.Y. 2003). So maybe that's his plan.

3. Is Jay-Z infringing GFK's IP

It appears that Jay-Z is taking a page from the Wallabee Champ's potentially proprietary playbook. He and Timbaland were sued by Osama Ahmed Fahmy, the nephew of the guy who wrote "Khorsa Khorsa," because they sampled it on "Big Pimpin'".



Fahmy sued Jay in 2007, almost 8 years after the song came out. Interestingly, the judge in that case limited the timeframe for infringement based on laches. I suspect that ruling might change. Anyway, the case has been going on for 7 years and Hova still hasn't sat for a deposition. Pretty gangsta.

4. Jay-Z is not as gangsta as politicians from Bogota, NJ

Tito Jackson, the mayor of Bogota, NJ, was punched in the face by a rival's 80-year-old father. Seriously. Here's a video of the old guy's admission. I guess he'd just seen "Raging Bull" and was fired up. Naturally, both men filed police reports.