legal issues with Celeb sites ...
 

Hi all,
have any paysite owners had many legal issues with their Celebrity site/s? I have had many sleepless nights wondering if I'm going to wake up to lawsuits ....

I had a quick search on the board, but could see much that has been discussed. By all means I would like to know if there is a thread I have missed also...

Is the exercise wothwhile in the end ? I notice that ARS doesn't have a celeb site... do they know something that I don't ? :uhoh

its all public domain.

most celeb sites are stolen content.

i think that might cause some legal issues.

Celebs site are illegal.
They are using content from major label company (MGM, Time Warner etc.etc...) without paying any fee for it. So one day or another, you will end with trouble. Especially since those label have powerfull laywer and lot of money to spend ;)

Not sure how Mrskin.com does it he is a regular guest every Friday on howard stern. He also has 60 thousand members.

I don't see him slowing down much and with that kind of public attention he should have by now.

Mr Skin gets away with it by using movie grabs, quoting a "fair use" law and trying to sell DVDs & videos from which the grabs are taken - that and careful consultation with his own lawyers....

In his case he can do that, he posts sort of reviews of the movies so their's some law that makes it legal. Regular celeb sites that don't do that, especially ones with fake pictures, can be sued very easily. Trust me.

anyting with serious cash involved has legal issues including Microsoft

I understand that, but he is still chopping up copy written material
and branding it. That in itself is infringement. Now on top of that he is profiting from it. The "review scam" only works on sites of non profit.

It is quite legal to do reviews for profit and include some of the copyrighted material you are reviewing. That's covered under "fair use'.

Fair use or not, it really doesn't matter. If someone like Norm Zadeh wants to take the time and the money to sue you, will the profit outweigh the cost of defending yourself?

This is not limited to celeb sites either...

who's Norm Zadeh ?

I can tell I'm asking a stupid question, but what the heck, ten people will bollock me and one will give me the correct answer :1orglaugh

Try hard to stay in there.. Im doing pretty well with you :)

When do I see my first check.. id cybermike :)

Do you have a lawyer ? If he tells you it's ok to post and brand copy written material, I think you should fire him.

Tell you what go take some stars wars video clips and put them under a review section on your site. Watch how fast Uncle George comes after you. Then state your claim of "fair use".
:thumbsup

Does that mean if you shoot some public nudity stuff I can use it free ?

Thanks NetRodent, you have got it right. But it takes more that just reviews to make it legal under "Fair Use" You have do a few other things as well and we do them all. One of the most important things we do is not to show the actresses in a bad light:thumbsup

Our model of doing business has been reviewed not only by our lawyers but a host of others including Playboy's, Maxim's, Lynn Milano's, Ynott's and a host of others.

As for Zadeh, and Apic we have no issue with him, but if his models start doing nude scenes in movies, you then will see them on our site:winkwink:

I had to add my:2 cents:

if you didnt get the pics through right mouse-click....youre ok:Graucho

free celebrity site owners get more heat than paysite owners.

i think if a movie studio really wanted to lay down the smack on Mr. Skin they could. Not worth the money and the real reason they don't go after Mr. Skin - free promotion for their movies.

Mr. Skin said on Stern, i dont know whether it was before or after Howard balled him out, eheheheh, that he now gets 'screeners' of movies, those come before the movie is released in theaters or in video stores. They want to be on Mr. Skin.

Mr. Skin, what does Maxim and Playboy have to do with your site?
I thought you were just a movie site, do you also publish scans?

Well Mutt:

We supply content to both Playboy and Maxim as well as Mystique mags, and we will soon be reviewing Playboy's videos on our site.

This is an interesting thread.


But how many celebrity sites are out there? Can these large companies chase EVERYONE down or just the big guys?

Has anyone ever ran into legal problems with their celebrity paysite?

hmm

maybe we should get elton john in here for the upcoming naughtyandgay.com ;)

We aren't in the business of writing reviews, so I haven't consulted with our lawyers on this particular issue. However, your opinion that we should fire him means very little.

You may want to consult with a lawyer yourself, or if you are too cheap read up on the following:

TITLE 17 > CHAPTER 1 > Sec. 107.

Section 107 Explained

Stanford University's Copyright and Fair Use

Its simple. Magazine sales are down so the magazine owners will go after the infrigers. Movie sales are getting better when sites promote the movies and display a link to an upsell movie site. So there is no reason for a movie studio to go after anyone because they are making money out of it.

Norman Zadeh btw is the publisher of Perfect 10 magazine. He tries to get celeb sites out of business and the one who sued Adult check. He basically wants to get his competition eliminated but most celeb sites simply don't use his models because there are simply not celebs. The fake pictures are the real issue because some fakes are made with Perfect 10 pictures.

Playboy will ask you to remove pictures if you use any. They don't sue if you comply. Don't use any fakes so Perfect 10 has no power to sue you. Fakes are also a problem with APIC and certain celebrities. If you stay with vidcaps and movieclips you are kind of safe but that may change in the future.

So what happened after your last appearance on Stern? Did they give you an ultimatum? Or was it show shtick that Howard was pissed you were doing lots of other radio shows?

Gday Hank and Kimmy

Always a pleasure reading your enlightening posts

Anyways, my only thoughts on this are that I have been advised by iBill that Visa will probably be coming down on Celeb sites in the not to distant future..

Can wait to see you all in Vegas guys

Evil Dan
ICQ: 92462894


PS - Haye Pentae, nice live feed from our home town in BrisVegas :thumbsup