In Brief

This article first appeared in Entertainment Law Matters, a Frankfurt Kurnit legal blog.

Lady Gaga songwriters in legal scuffle over royalties. Calvin "Sci-Fidelity" Gaines and Rob Fusari, co-composers of some of Lady Gaga's mega hits from her album entitled The Fame, are in a $1 million legal battle over royalties and credit for the Lady Gaga songs. The two have worked together since 1997, composing and producing music for Destiny's Child and Whitney Houston. But their relationship went sour last year when Fusari purportedly ignored Gaines's requests to get credit and royalties for the Lady Gaga songs. In his complaint against Fusari, Gaines claims that Lady Gaga and her production companies have agreed to be bound by the ultimate outcome of the case and compensate him if he comes out victorious. The Fame has been certified platinum three times and has sold over three million copies in the United States alone. This is not the first time Fusari finds himself in court over his former girlfriend, Lady Gaga. Last year, he sued the pop star for $30 million, claiming he discovered her, helped her develop her performance style and came up with her stage name. The case was eventually settled out of court for an undisclosed amount.

Celebrity class action swept under the red carpet. A Los Angeles court dismissed actress Shirley Jones's right of publicity claims against online celebrity photo licenser, Corbis, finding that she consented to being photographed at red carpet events. Jones is a well-known stage and film actress (she starred in the filmed versions of Oklahoma! and The Music Man, but perhaps is best known for portraying Shirley Partridge in The Partridge Family, an ABC sitcom about a widowed mother of five who travels with her kids' pop rock band). By her complaint, Jones sought to be lead plaintiff in a class action lawsuit, to enable other celebrities whose photos have been displayed on Corbis's website to join the lawsuit. The actress accused Corbis of violating her right to control the commercial exploitation of her name, image and likeness, by displaying photographs of her for financial gain. All of the ten photographs of Jones at issue in the case were taken at high-profile award ceremonies. The court pointed out that walking on the "red carpet" and posing for photographers is a matter of choice for celebrities, because celebrities are made aware that there are other entrances they can use to avoid the paparazzi. By making that...