This week in entertainment law headlines: Elton John and Woody Allen win their days in court, while Netflixs battle with Satan rages on.
Welcome to Gavel Up, Tribecas weekly round-up of lessons learned from the ever-fascinating front lines of entertainment law.
LESSON 1: MAKE WAVES, BUT DON'T WASH OUT Earlier this month, filmmaker and Harvard-educated attorney Tim Chey filed a suit in Federal District Court in California citing Netflix for the most egregious act ever committed by a film distributor, seeking at least $10 million in damages. Netflix's alleged infraction? Failing to stream Chey's faith-based potboiler Suing the Devil, starring Malcolm McDowell as a Devil perplexingly willing to suffer the indignities of a courtroom trial. The scorcher of a trailer is worth a few minutes of your time.
According to the suit, Netflix allowed users to save the film in their queue in advance of its eventual online release, hurting theatrical sales as customers stated on Facebook and in person that they would wait until it comes out on Netflix.' Chey displays a certain knack for keeping his film in the news, though you wonder at his plans for his latest directorial effort, Final: The Rapture, probably not in your Netflix queue, Fall 2013.
LESSON 2: CHOOSE YOUR WORDS, CAREFULLY The first edition of William Faulkner's 1951 genre-bender Requiem for a Nun runs 286 pages. The page count for Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris is a comparatively modest 89. Late last week, Chief Judge Michael P. Mill of a Federal District Court in Mississippi dismissed a suit over nine words they had in common.
The past is not dead! Actually, it's not even past, quoth Owen Wilson's Gil Pender. You know who said that? Faulkner. And he was right. And I met him, too. I ran into him at a dinner party.
Judge Mill ruled the line a fair use of a quote via a character who was an enthusiastic admirer of Faulkner, peppering his opinion with a certain pique. After thanking the parties for not asking him to compare The Sound and the Fury with Sharknado, he sent a shot across the Faulkner estate's bow for its implication that those nine words in Midnight were anything other than homage: How Hollywood's flattering and artful use of literary allusion is a point of litigation, not celebration, is beyond this court's comprehension. Honor your heroes, screenwriters, but prepare for your heroes to fight back
LESSON 3: THERE'S MORE THAN ONE WAY TO SAY I LOVE YOU or maybe just leave your heroes alone. Last week, the United States Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of a suit against Elton John. Songwriter Guy Hobbs claimed Sir Elton's 1985 song Nikita infringed on Hobbs's song Natasha, penned while he worked on a Russian cruise ship in 1982.
Hobbs argued that the two songs are substantially similar, as John's song appropriates Natasha's unique selection, arrangement, and combination of certain elements. Among them, the theme of impossible love across Cold War boundaries, references to eyes and written correspondence, and a one-word title from a three-syllable female Russian name, though Judge Daniel Anthony Manion noted that Elton John was not using the Russian version of the name, typically for men. How quickly a writer of forbidden Cold War love songs forgot Khrushchev.
The suit ultimately failed on the central tenet of copyright law, that copyrights do not protect general ideas but only the particular expression of an idea. The three-judge panel agreed with the lower court that these two songs simply tell different stories,' paving the way for the inevitable string of romantic chart-toppers, Natalya, Nika, and Nadezhda.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
13/05/2026
New Adobe Premiere Color Grading Mode Accelerated on NVIDIA GPUs
Joel Pennington May 13, 2026
0 Comments
New NVIDIA RTX-accelerated features streamlin...
13/05/2026
Grass Valley announced that dB Broadcast has delivered new IP-based outside broadcast (OB) trucks for Cloudbass, featuring Grass Valley LDX 100 Series cameras a...
13/05/2026
Ikegami will exhibit the latest additions to its wide range of broadcast production cameras, control units, viewfinders and monitors on stand 5D3-1 at Broadcast...
13/05/2026
FISE, working with the founding members of the XR Sports Alliance (XRSA), Accedo, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and HBS, have collaborated to develop an immersive...
13/05/2026
Canon Unveils New EOS R6 V Full-Frame EOS Camera and RF20-50mm F4 L IS USM PZ Bu...
13/05/2026
Boston Conservatory at Berklee Honors Beth Morrison and Moses Pendleton at Comme...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Creative software developer Foundry today announced the latest developments on Nuke Stage. A purpose-built application for end-to-end virtual production and in-...
13/05/2026
A definitive portrait of one of Ireland's most influential musicians
New TV documentary airs Monday 18 May on RT One and RT Player at 9.35pm
Watch the...
13/05/2026
Agentic AI is changing the way users get work done. Following the success of OpenClaw, the community is embracing new open source agentic frameworks. The latest...
13/05/2026
Reinforcement-learning agents - AI systems that learn by trial and error - can c...
12/05/2026
Beyond the Hype: A Strategic Post-Hoc Analysis of NAB 2026 If NAB Show 2026 had an underlying theme, it was a quiet, industry-wide pivot from the high-energy sp...
12/05/2026
Guntermann and Drunck (G&D), a Panoptec Technologies Group company, and CT Square, led by Chandresh Shah, have announced a joint venture to distribute G&D and V...
12/05/2026
With 30 days until the start of the FIFA World Cup 2026, Telemundo, the exclusive Spanish-language home of the tournament in the United States, has announced th...
12/05/2026
The NHL has announced the return of Stanley Pup for its third consecutive year, a 90-minute special featuring adoptable rescue dogs competing on a miniature rin...
12/05/2026
NBCUniversal presented its 2026 Upfront to advertisers at Radio City Music Hall, detailing upcoming programming across NBC, Peacock, Bravo, and Versant properti...
12/05/2026
FOX Sports has announced funding for the Fandom and Social Connection Initiative at Harvard Kennedy School's Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Publ...
12/05/2026
TNDV and Live Media, both divisions of Live Media Group, supported live broadcast coverage around NCAA Final Four weekend in Indianapolis, including the March M...
12/05/2026
The European Football Alliance (EFA) has announced a content distribution agreement with Fubo Sports Network, the free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channel ...
12/05/2026
For the first time, Spanish-speaking fans in the U.S. will have two separate tel...
12/05/2026
CP Communications led a comprehensive spectrum management initiative on behalf of Churchill Downs during Kentucky Derby week, coordinating RF assets across the ...
12/05/2026
LiveU has announced a strategic partnership with DRONERESPONDERS, a 501(c)3 non-...
12/05/2026
Open Broadcast Systems has announced that BMC TV, a specialist in IP transport of broadcast content, has selected the Open Broadcast Systems 5G Flyaway solution...
12/05/2026
NEP Europe, part of NEP Group, has announced it will deliver broadcast solutions...
12/05/2026
Grass Valley has announced continued collaboration with Ravensbourne University ...
12/05/2026
Stats Perform has announced the launch of Opta Pulse, an AI-assisted video creation and distribution platform for leagues, rights holders, and broadcasters. The...
12/05/2026
FOX Sports has announced a collaboration with Sesame Workshop to integrate Sesame Street characters into FOX Sports' FIFA World Cup 2026 programming. Conten...
12/05/2026
To date, NHL Productions has produced 19 broadcasts with commentary in American Sign Language
NHL in ASL (American Sign Language) may be just one show, but the...
12/05/2026
Google's Brian Albert: creators, athletes, highlights, nostalgia, second-scr...
12/05/2026
A still from Past Lives by Celine Song, an official selection of the Premieres program at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. (Courtesy of Sundance Institute | p...
12/05/2026
Spotify is where fans and artists come together, turning discovery into somethin...
12/05/2026
Features patented Marco-MMC clocking technology
Black Lion Audio's latest release combines the company's expertise in clocking with their renowned p...
12/05/2026
New Track Panel, sequencer upgrades & more
Following their recent public beta release, Reason Studios have announced the full release of Reason 14. With the...
12/05/2026
One month to go! SBS reveals expansive FIFA World Cup 2026 lineup beyond the pi...
12/05/2026
Rohde & Schwarz presents its advanced solutions for power electronics testing at...
12/05/2026
aconnic AG (ISIN: DE000A0LBKW6), Munich, has developed a modified fund raising p...
12/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/05/2026
Tyrell Corporation, specialists in high-end live sports and entertainment broadcasts, was tasked with delivering compelling broadcast coverage of premier equest...
12/05/2026
Registration is now open for IBC2026 as the global media, entertainment and technology community prepares to converge on the RAI Amsterdam from 11 14 September ...
12/05/2026
Ross Video, a global leader in live video production technology, will present its latest innovations and integrated production workflows at BroadcastAsia 2026, ...
12/05/2026
500 selected leaders from around the world across start-ups, corporates, and venture capital. Over 50bn in assets under management among attending investors, a...
This week in entertainment law headlines: Elton John and Woody Allen win their days in court, while Netflixs battle with Satan rages on. 
