Jeffrey D. Goldman | |
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Born | Los Angeles, California, U.S. | September 23, 1966
Occupation | Entertainment attorney |
Years active | 1991–2024 |
Spouse | Jennifer Goldman |
Jeffrey D. Goldman (born September 23, 1966) [1] is an American former entertainment lawyer, best known for his music litigation practice and for his involvement in two influential internet law cases: A&M Records v. Napster and Perfect 10 v. Google. His cases dramatically impacted the development of Internet law and on the music industry's transformation from physical sales to digital distribution of music. He was also part of the litigation team that represented the plaintiff victims in the O. J. Simpson civil case.
During his career, Goldman was a partner at the two most prominent entertainment law firms in Los Angeles history—Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp and Loeb & Loeb [2] —both of which celebrated their 100th anniversaries while Goldman was a partner. [3] [4]
Goldman was a "key figure" representing the recording industry [5] in the influential [6] Napster copyright litigation. [7] [8] [9] The Recording Industry Association of America awarded him an Honorary Gold Record for his work on the case. [7] Following Napster's shutdown, one commentator observed that "[i]t took the Recording Industry Association of America's lawsuit against Napster to completely alter internet history" and quoted Goldman predicting the emergence in its place of legal alternatives such as iTunes. [10] Goldman later represented Apple Inc. and iTunes in copyright infringement claims resulting from the company's use of U2's Vertigo in commercials for the iPod. [11] [12] [13]
Reprising the Napster playbook, Goldman was lead counsel for the four major record companies—14 record labels in all—in a lawsuit against ringtone mobile app Myxer, [14] [15] [16] [17] which was seen as "the mobile equivalent of ... the original Napster for music" [18] and allegedly had committed "tens of millions" of copyright violations. [19] After the court found Myxer liable for direct copyright infringement and rejected its fair use defense, [20] the case settled and Myxer shut down shortly thereafter. [21]
Following the Napster case, Goldman represented Universal Music Group in a putative class action brought by The Chambers Brothers, The Coasters, The Drifters, and The Main Ingredient. The court rejected the artists' argument that thousands of musicians who signed record deals with the major labels’ corporate predecessors between 1956 and 1996 never granted rights to exploit their music in digital audio format, or in any format other than analog recording. The plaintiff artists had also sought a share of the major labels' settlements in the Napster case. [22]
Ultimately, Goldman served as lead counsel for Universal Music Group in a class action concerning digital royalty payments to recording artists from iTunes and similar services, [23] the last of the major-label digital download class-action settlements—closing what The Hollywood Reporter called an "important chapter in the legal history of the music business." [24]
Goldman represented adult magazine Perfect 10 in copyright infringement lawsuits against Google and Amazon, [25] [26] [27] cited by The Verge as among the six most important Internet law cases of all time. [28] The cases had a "mixed result," [29] [30] but helped define the parameters under which a search engine can be held liable for the infringing conduct of its users. [31]
Early in his career, Goldman handled "the difficult legal research and brief writing" for the plaintiff victims in the O. J. Simpson civil wrongful death case. [32] [33] His briefs in the case included one leading to the admission of Nicole Brown's diary entries, a crucial difference from the criminal trial. Lead counsel Daniel Petrocelli explained, "The least explored aspect of the case is Simpson's motive. You cannot just say this murder was a culmination of domestic-violence incidents. You need to tell the jury a story. This was about a stormy relationship." Time magazine reported, "That strategy made the difference in understanding Simpson... Nicole's diary showed that she and Simpson were having fights in those last weeks. Their hostilities had taken a cruel turn. Simpson sent Nicole a letter that was a thinly veiled threat to report her to the IRS for failing to pay capital-gains taxes. Infuriated, she started to deny him access to the children.... She began to treat him like a stranger. That, Petrocelli said, is when three weeks of retaliation began. In that period, the lawyer argued, Simpson grew angrier and more obsessed with his ex-wife, developing a rage that resulted in death for her and Ron Goldman." [34]
The civil judge found the diary entries were admissible because they were pertinent to Nicole's state of mind, which in turn was relevant to Simpson's motive [35] —reversing a crucial ruling from the criminal case that excluded the diary as "inadmissible hearsay." [36] The civil court's novel ruling was upheld on appeal. [37] The Los Angeles Times wrote that this evidence "helped the plaintiffs tell their story of domestic violence" and show that when Nicole "rejected [Simpson] for good in the spring of 1994 ... he erupted in the same uncontrollable rage that had caused him to lash out at her in the past—only this time, he was brandishing a knife. [38] The $33.5 million civil verdict against Simpson "very nearly upstaged the president of the United States on the occasion of his State of the Union address," [39] ending the case that "riveted America for two and a half years[.]" [40]
Los Angeles Business Journal identified Goldman as one of the nation's top music litigators. [7] He was "lead counsel in groundbreaking copyright infringement litigation" and "a veteran of high-stakes music industry skirmishes," [41] handling numerous cases that garnered media attention.
Goldman represented MCA Records in the Barbie Girl case brought by toy company Mattel involving the interaction of trademark law with the First Amendment. [42] Mattel sought to prevent MCA from using the Barbie doll name in the hit song. [43] MCA was victorious in the case. [44] [45] Decades later, Mattel changed its position and obtained a license to use Barbie Girl as a sample in the hit song Barbie World from the Barbie movie. [46]
Goldman represented Geffen Records in its disputes with Courtney Love concerning her recording contract and the Nirvana catalog. [42] Responding to Love's claims that she was "determined to radically redefine the nature of the music recording business for the next century," [47] [48] Goldman's legal briefs dismissed Love's suit as a "meritless, inflammatory diatribe" designed to "attract media attention." [48] The court dismissed most of Love's claims before trial, [49] with the remainder of the case settling on the eve of trial. [50]
Goldman defended Dr. Dre [3] and Aftermath Records in a $500 million lawsuit contending that Truth Hurts' hit single Addictive sampled a song from the 1981 Hindi-language film Jyoti. [51] [52] After many years of litigation, the court dismissed the case on summary judgment after applying the copyright law of India to the claims. [53] [54]
Goldman defended music producer Timbaland in the Timbaland plagiarism controversy, a $20 million copyright infringement suit alleging that the hit Nelly Furtado song Do It sampled an obscure Finnish recording. [55] Timbaland prevailed on summary judgment and the court dismissed the suit. [56] [57]
In 2015, Goldman was recognized by Variety as outside counsel for Universal Music Group [58] in a trio of significant cases: a class action concerning digital royalty payments to thousands of recording artists and record producers; [59] [24] a piracy lawsuit against a distributor of mixtapes to prison inmates, which contained music by artists like James Brown, Eminem, Marvin Gaye, and Stevie Wonder; [60] [61] and a suit against an international distributor of music to multinational airlines that settled for $30 million after Goldman was said to have "navigated the complexities of international air travel to score a summary judgment ruling that when it gets to a jury next month to decide damages could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars." [62] [63] [64] [65] [66]
Other music cases that drew media attention included:
Goldman defended Hello! and ¡Hola! magazines in defamation suits brought by Kevin Costner for publishing an allegedly fictional interview with the actor/director concerning a child he purportedly fathered out of wedlock. [81]
In another defamation case, he represented Richard Simmons against the National Enquirer concerning an article alleging that Simmons had transitioned into a woman, before Simmons hired a different attorney to sue the magazine. [82]
Goldman's other clients included Muhammad Ali, Eminem, Pearl Jam, Soulja Boy, Steven Van Zandt, Sony Music, Univision Music, Warner/Chappell Music, Warner Music Group, Robert Altman, Marlon Brando, Spike Lee, and Jack Nicholson. [7] [3] [8] [11] [12] [83] [84] [85] [86] [87] [88] He also represented toy companies, automakers, pharmaceutical companies, cosmetics companies, and magazine publishers. [89]
In a case reminiscent of the Barbie Girl case, with its First Amendment overtones, he defended fashion designer Brian Lichtenberg in a trademark suit brought by pharmaceutical giant AbbVie objecting to Lichtenberg's parody sportswear—football jerseys with the words "Vicodin" and "Adderal" printed on the back where the player's name would ordinarily be found. [90] [91]
Goldman also defended Target Corp. in a copyright ownership dispute over the iconic Uma Thurman photograph on the Pulp Fiction movie poster and soundtrack album cover. [12] [92] [93]
In the mid-1980s, Goldman was a music critic and columnist for alternative weekly The Los Angeles Village View. [94] [95]
Goldman's great-great-great-grandfather was Liebman Adler, [96] a prominent Chicago rabbi who spoke out forcefully against slavery during the American Civil War. [97] [98]
His great-great-great uncle, Dankmar Adler, Liebman's son, was a noted architect and civil engineer who designed influential skyscrapers and mentored Frank Lloyd Wright.
His great-great-uncle was Raymond Leslie Goldman, a prolific author of detective fiction and frequent contributor to The Saturday Evening Post . [99] [100] [101]
His grandfather, Louis L. Goldman, and great-uncle Ben F. Goldman Jr., were preeminent entertainment lawyers. [3] [102] [96]
Kazaa Media Desktop. was a peer-to-peer file sharing application using the FastTrack protocol licensed by Joltid Ltd. and operated as Kazaa by Sharman Networks. Kazaa was subsequently under license as a legal music subscription service by Atrinsic, Inc., which lasted until August 2012.
Napster was a peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing application primarily associated with digital audio file distribution. Founded by Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker, the platform originally launched on June 1, 1999. Audio shared on the service was typically encoded in the MP3 format. As the software became popular, the company encountered legal difficulties over copyright infringement. Napster ceased operations in 2001 after losing multiple lawsuits and filed for bankruptcy in June 2002.
Shari Watson, known as Truth Hurts, is an American R&B singer.
Music Canada is a non-profit trade organization that was founded 9 April 1963 in Toronto to represent the interests of companies that record, manufacture, produce, and distribute music in Canada. It also offers benefits to some of Canada's leading independent record labels and distributors. It was known as the Canadian Record Manufacturer's Association until 1972 and the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) until 2011.
MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd., 545 U.S. 913 (2005), is a United States Supreme Court decision in which the Court ruled unanimously that the defendants, peer-to-peer file sharing companies Grokster and Streamcast, could be held liable for inducing copyright infringement by users of their file sharing software. The plaintiffs were a consortium of 28 entertainment companies, led by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios.
The National Music Publishers' Association (NMPA) is a trade association for the American music publishing industry. Founded in 1917, NMPA represents American music publishers and their songwriting partners. The NMPA’s mandate is to protect and advance the interests of music publishers and songwriters in matters relating to the domestic and global protection of music copyrights.
Stan Lee Media (SLM) was an Internet-based creation, production and marketing company that was founded in 1998, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2000, and ultimately dismissed from bankruptcy in November 2006. In its early years, the company created Stan Lee branded super hero franchises for applications in all media including the standout series the 7th Portal. Its 165-man animation production studio was based in Los Angeles from 1998 to 2001. It won the 2000 Web Award for the best Entertainment Portal on the World Wide Web, but the company failed in the same year. Stan Lee himself cut ties with the company long before his death.
Arts and media industry trade groups, such as the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) and Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), strongly oppose and attempt to prevent copyright infringement through file sharing. The organizations particularly target the distribution of files via the Internet using peer-to-peer software. Efforts by trade groups to curb such infringement have been unsuccessful with chronic, widespread and rampant infringement continuing largely unabated.
File sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digital media, such as computer programs, multimedia, program files, documents or electronic books/magazines. It involves various legal aspects as it is often used to exchange data that is copyrighted or licensed.
Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc., 464 U.S. 417 (1984), also known as the "Betamax case", is a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States which ruled that the making of individual copies of complete television shows for purposes of time shifting does not constitute copyright infringement, but can instead be defended as fair use. The court also ruled that the manufacturers of home video recording devices, such as Betamax or other VCRs, cannot be liable for contributory infringement. The case was a boon to the home video market, as it created a legal safe harbor for the technology.
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/or distribute approximately 85% of all legally sold recorded music in the United States". RIAA is headquartered in Washington, D.C.
Music plagiarism is the use or close imitation of another author's music while representing it as one's own original work. Plagiarism in music now occurs in two contexts—with a musical idea or sampling. For a legal history of the latter see sampling.
Peter Kevin Castel is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Marc J. Randazza is an American First Amendment attorney and a legal commentator on InfoWars.
Mattel v. MCA Records, 296 F.3d 894, was a series of lawsuits between Mattel and MCA Records that resulted from the 1997 hit single "Barbie Girl" by Danish-Norwegian group Aqua. The case was ultimately dismissed.
Metallica, et al. v. Napster, Inc. was a 2000 U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California case that focused on copyright infringement, racketeering, and unlawful use of digital audio interface devices. Metallica vs. Napster, Inc. was the first case that involved an artist suing a peer-to-peer file sharing ("P2P") software company.
Rightscorp. Inc is a Los-Angeles based copyright enforcement company, which locates alleged copyright violators and collects money from legal damages as well as out of court settlements on behalf of the copyright holder(s). Rightscorp manages copyrights of videos, music, and video games.
Mattel Inc. v. Walking Mountain Productions, 353 F.3d 792, was a case between Mattel and Tom Forsythe in which Mattel sued Forsythe for the production and sale of photographs portraying "Barbie" dolls. Mattel alleged that Forsythe's use of Barbie's name and likeness in his "Food Chain Barbie" photo series infringed on their copyrights, trademarks, and trade dress. The court held that Mattel's trademark and trade dress claims were "groundless or unreasonable" and therefore ordered Mattel to pay 1.8 million dollars in legal fees to Forsythe under the Lanham Act.
Bagdasarian Productions is an American production company founded by Ross Bagdasarian Sr. (1919-1972) on February 20, 1961. The company holds the rights to Alvin and the Chipmunks and related intellectual property assets. The company is currently owned and operated in by Ross Bagdasarian Jr. and Janice Karman. The company has co-produced many television series, specials, and films and initiated multiple lawsuits to protect the characters.
Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp is a law firm founded in Los Angeles, California, with additional offices in New York City, New York, and Washington, D.C. It has historically been recognized as one of Los Angeles's most prominent entertainment law firms, though it also provides legal services to clients outside the entertainment industry.
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