The Face Book contract

Surely most of you have heard by now of the random New Yorker who claims he owns 84% of Facebook. This man, Paul Ceglia, has brought into evidence a work made for hire contract between himself and Facebook genius Mark Zuckerberg that was supposedly signed when Zuckerberg was a college sophomore.

Zuckerberg has consistently claimed to not remember signing any such contract, and reps for the Facebook guru are now calling the document a forgery. At the end of the day, even if such contract existed, what it all boils down to is to what the parties intended. If the parties intended to sign away a percentage of interest in what was or became facebook, then the contract, if genuine, would be valid. A copy of the alleged contract can be found HERE

Albie Manzo v. Seton Hall Law School

Albie Manzo, known from his fame in Real Housewives of New Jersey as the son of Caroline Manzo, is causing more of a stir after being booted from Seton Hall at the end of the year. Check out this Above the Law article for the latest... http://abovethelaw.com/2010/07/albie-manzo-v-seton-hall-law-school/

BitTorrent finds a legal use

BitTorrent, one of the world's most popular sites used for downloading of music and movies, has just added another legal use in case anyone is keeping score. In 1984 when the Supreme Court handed down its landmark contributory infringement case in Sony Pictures v. Universal City Studios, the highest court of the land allowed Sony's Betamax Recording system (which was replaced by the VCR by the time the case reached the Supreme Court) to continue to be on the market because of its non-infringing fair use potential. This basically translates to the following- if a product that could be used for illegal purposes also has substantial non-infringing uses, the product could escape secondary liability for copyright infringement.

Over the weekend, Facebook announced that it uses the popular downloading site to transfer updates through code to its tens of thousands of servers.Other companies that have copped to using BitTorrent for similar purposes include Twitter and Blizzard's World of Warcraft online subscriber system.

The revenge of Michael Jackson...

This morning, in a federal court in California, Joe Jackson, estranged father of Michael Jackson, who died tragically one year ago today, is expected to file a wrongful death action against Dr. Conrad Murray. TMZ broke a copy of the complaint which can be accessed here--> Joe Jackson's Wrongful Death Lawsuit.


While no one but Dr. Murray and Michael Jackson know what happened on that fateful morning one year ago today, Jackson's cause of death was determined to be from an overdose of Propofol, a drug that requires close physcian monitoring, and sent him into cardiac arrest from which he was unable to be resuscitated. The complaint alleges that Dr. Murray attempted to clean up the scene before EMT's were summoned and could arrive to tend to Michael.

Whatever it was that occurred, the truth is that Michael Jackson's loss was suffered by the entire planet that he worked so hard throughout his life to care for. Having sold some 9 million records, starred in a hit documentary/movie, and generated almost $1 billion since his unfortuante passing, Michael Jackson's legacy as the King of Pop is sure to have a permanent place in pop culture for generations to come.

RIP King. RIP Michael Jackson
August 29, 1958 - June 25, 2009

New Jersey's nixed tax credit forces Law & Order: SVU to leave the state

Yesterday, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's budget reform package was approved by a state panel and is expected to pass an upcoming vote by both houses this coming Monday. Pending the approval of the budget, New Jersey will be suspending its film and TV production tax credit, which according to estimates, provides nearly $500 million in wages annually to some 7,000 New Jersey production workers. An additional $508 million is earned annually by 3,000 small businesses who supply film and TV productions in the state.

The show has been one of the highest profile TV series based in the state for over a decade. Sets for the show are in NBC's Central Archives building in North Bergen. Due to the sudden cancellation of the original Law & Order series, space has opened at the studio in Chelsea Piers that could be the potential new home for the cast and crew. The relationship between the Piers and Law & Order has become such a staple in the filming of the original series that a road leading to Pier 62 was renamed Law & Order Way back in 2004.

Facing the elimination of the 20% tax incentive, shows in addition to SVU could become homeless as well. Many fear that SVU's exit, and potentially many others, from The Garden State will have a detrimental impact on the local filmmaking community when many of the crew members lose their jobs if the show transfers across the Hudson. Stay tuned for the important votes on Monday.

Singing in public forbidden?

Sullivan's Island, a small town of about 2,000 in South Carolina, has proposed a city ordinance that would ban public singing, among other things, if it annoyed other persons, with increased watch between the hours of 11:00pm and 7:00am. The text of the ordinance reads:

"It shall be unlawful for any person to yell, shout, hoot, whistle, or sing on the public streets, particularly between the hours of 11:00pm and 7:00am or at any time or place so as to disturb the comfort, or repose of persons in any office, or in any dwelling, or other type of residence, or of any persons in the vicinity."

The town of Sullivan's Island is a barrier island just north of Charleston's Harbor, and can grow in size to about 5,000 people on the weekends during the summer. The town council has already voted for the ordinance on two prior occasions, and after a third vote in July, it is expected to be put into effect in August of this year.

Andy Benke, the town administrator, told CNN that people are welcome to come enjoy the town, but wanted to make it clear that loud, disruptive noises- which includes singing in public- will not be tolerated.

Thoughts?

The Hollywood Reporter's Top 10 List of Celebrity Neighbor Legal Disputes

Celebrities versus their neighbors is always a fun topic. Time to add another dispute to our Hall of Fame.

Val Kilmer is having trouble getting the zoning permit to turn his 6,000-acre New Mexico ranch into an upscale bed-and-breakfast. His Santa Fe neighbors are still outraged by his 2003 interview with Rolling Stone, in which he called his neighborhood the "homicide capital of the Southwest" and said that "80 percent of the people in my county are drunk."

Let's call Kilmer's fracas No. 10 on our list of favorite disputes involving celebrities and their neighbors. The other nine:

Click the link below to read Eriq Gardner's Top 10 disputes. Eriq writes for The Hollywood Reporter, Esq. and this article originally appeared on its website, linked to below.

Top 10 celebrity neighbor disputes