Posts tagged as Lawsuits
Nikki Finke v. Janice Min: The Bazillion-Dollar Lawsuit
While the lawsuit apparently filed today by the parent company of Nikki Finke's Deadline against the parent company of the Hollywood Reporter is largely about "misappropriating wholesale content" from Deadline, the fun begins when you see they accused the Reporter of straight up stealing code from their site TVLine. (The copyright infringement on the code seems pretty cut and dry. [PDF]) BUT THEN there's also a section on how the Reporter tried to "lure away" Deadline's employee, Ms. Finke, with a decent salary and a "ONE MILLION DOLLAR MALIBU HOME." Then there are like a thousand examples of stories that Deadline posted first and then the Reporter posted 42 minutes later. READ MORE
Bloomberg Pregnancy Discrimination Suit Thrown Out
The discrimination case brought against Bloomberg LP, by 80+ lady-with-children-type workers, has been dismissed. (Fun footnote: Bloomberg's manner at his deposition was described as "testy and sarcastic.")
NYC Won't Release Bloomberg's Emails with Cathie Black
The mayor's office has twice rejected totally every-day requests to see emails between the mayor's office and Cathie Black, the short-time Schools Chancellor, while she was employed at Hearst Publications (as well as with any other people at Hearst). The reasoning? The documents are exempt from disclosure because they're inter- or intra-agency communications. That's weird, I guess we all own part of Cosmo now? Anyway, now the City is being sued for the emails, quite rightly.
How Many Gays Does It Take to Pitch a Baseball?
Oh this is great, great great, the story of the lawsuit brought by the National Center for Lesbian Rights against the North American Gay Amateur Athletic Alliance, hosts of the Gay Softball World Series. I don't even want to summarize and spoil anything for you, but the issue at hand is: how many straight people, if any, can play on a gay sports team? (There are of course a number of sub-issues, including "Are White People Racist" and "Do Bisexuals Exist?" Which, oh God, really people?) Anyway, the phrase GAY TRIBUNAL comes into play.
Did Charlie Crist Steal Interior Decorating Secrets From The Wu-Tang Clan?
Former Florida Governor Charlie Crist can pardon Jim Morrison for a bogus obscenity bust, and officially apologize to David Byrne for using his music without permission. But he's really going to be in trouble when Raekwon finds out that he's wallpapered his offices with the album-cover artwork from 2009's Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... Pt. II. READ MORE
Woman Claims Healing Energy Bracelets Are Ineffective!
According to this truly sketchy website, "if you feel unbalanced and generally worn down lately, it is probably because your biofield has fallen victim to the electromagnetic radiation around you." The answer is the iRenew bracelet, obviously. But one woman did not find that her electromagnetic radiation was dealt with properly by this bracelet! So she is suing the company: "Her attorney is asking that he be allowed to sue on behalf of the hundreds of people who bought the bracelets. He estimated damages at $5 million." Oh no, but I have been wearing it in my underpants!
Time To Get The Led Out... In Court
Earlier this week, the American folk singer Jake Holmes sued Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page and the band's associated publishing and record companies over copyright infringement involving the hazy classic-rock staple "Dazed And Confused," which Holmes claims was nicked from him when he opened for Page's pre-Zep band the Yardbirds in 1968. Holmes' take on the song, which appeared on his 1967 debut "The Above Ground Sound" of Jake Holmes, is above; you can hear the Led Zeppelin version below if you're far away from a radio station that gets the Led out on a semi-regular basis. READ MORE
Axl Rose To Get In The Ring, Courtroom With His Former Manager
Curmudgeonly Guns N' Roses frontman Axl Rose has sued his former manager Irving Azoff for $5 million, saying that Azoff sabotaged sales of 2008's forever-in-the-making Chinese Democracy and tried to screw up the band's live itinerary around the release of that album in hopes that Rose would begrudgingly reunite with the probably more lucrative Appetite For Destruction-era lineup of the group, despite there being many bygones to be bygoned on that front. The release of Chinese Democracy was certainly one that raised a lot more questions than it answered, and it would appear that this particular piece of litigation is something of an attempt to answer at least a few of them. Would Chinese Democracy have sold better had it not been sold only at Best Buy outlets, which didn't really go the distance as far as promoting the thing? Did it need Slash's guitar lines as a selling point? Or would it have sold better if it didn't sound like it had been labored over for 14 years? READ MORE
Scalding Grease Normal Side Effect of Undrained McDonald's Sandwiches
"When Frank Sutton bit into his sandwich, scalding grease 'flew all over his mouth,' a fellow diner recalled. Mr. Sutton's wife took ice from her drink and applied it to his face, but his lips blistered. When he told one of the employees, he testified that she said 'this is what happens' to the sandwiches 'when they aren't drained completely.'" READ MORE
