Tag: Garvey

Sports activities & Leisure Highlight – June 2021 #2 | Foster Garvey PC

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  • After investing in a company based on a home water rowing machine, Jay-Z is among several celebrities investing in a company promoting a vertical climbing machine. Jay-Z is either optimistic about fitness equipment and technology for the home, or he’s very serious about preparing for an upcoming camping trip.
  • Jay-Z’s alum from Roc-A-Fella Records, Kanye West, caused a stir this week when he was spotted not only in a full mask over his head and face (at least he was told) but also in Nike sneakers – regardless of his Adidas advertising contract. Since his deal with Adidas likely contains wording prohibiting him from wearing his competitors’ clothing in public, it will be interesting to see if and how Adidas reacts and / or Kanye save face.
  • As the latest sign that the entertainment industry is embracing NFTs, the branding and merchandising arm of Universal Music Group, Bravado lived up to its name and signed a licensing agreement with the well-known digital art brand Ikonick.

Endorsement deals, sponsorship and investments

How athletes become entrepreneurs
June 8, 2021 via Off the Post News
Athletes are becoming increasingly entrepreneurial by starting their own businesses and making lots of money off the field.

Online athletes are bigger than the Olympic rings
June 8, 2021 via Sportico – Business
Just as Facebook executives told potential Olympians at a recent virtual event, everyone who travels to Tokyo is participating in a kind of quadrathlon.

Kanye West has been spotted wearing the new Gap Yeezy jacket and Nike shoes – but he still has five years left to partner with Adidas
June 8, 2021 via Business Insider
Kanye West stepped out with Nike shoes and his newly announced Gap x Yeezy jacket last week. West has a partnership with Adidas, which Bloomberg says controls the website that sells its Yeezy shoes.

McDonald’s new BTS meal is already surpassing Travis Scott’s hit meal in popularity
June 5, 2021 via Business Insider – Latest news
At the end of May, McDonald’s started BTS food with the Korean band. For the first week, it drew more traffic to the stores than the Travis Scott meal.

Vanessa Bryant Nike Dispute reappears with daughter’s unreleased shoes
June 3, 2021 via Sportico – Business
Vanessa Bryant, the wife of the late NBA icon Kobe Bryant, called Nike on Instagram after photos of a shoe that she said was not approved for sale emerged in her hand, reports Footwear News.

Jay-Z, Pitbull among investors, as Denver-based fitness startup CLMBR raises $ 13.5 million
June 3, 2021 via Denver Post – Breaking News
Avrum Elmakis may have 99 problems, but a lack of investors isn’t one. The founder and CEO of CLMBR, a Denver-based startup that makes a eight-foot-tall vertical climbing machine, closed a $ 13.5 million financing round last month that included 29 investors – including celebrities like Jay-Z.

Celebrities and social media influencers who advertise crypto and special purpose vehicles are not automatic “likes”
Jun 2, 2021 via Yahoo Finance – Top Stories –
The US Securities and Exchange Commission often warns investors not to fall for the madness of the masses. The SEC is monitoring the behavior of gullible fans and has displayed prominent endorsements ranging from cryptocurrencies to Acquisition Vehicle (SPAC) purposes.

Movies & TV

Endexx and DJ Khaled release a new line of CBD care products for men, Blesswell. But can it succeed in today’s saturated celebrity market?
June 8, 2021 via The Ritz Herald
Every other day we discover that celebrities endorse distinctive products, sometimes they don’t even use the products themselves. Endorsement deals at times involve huge sums of money and percentages of sales.

Netflix and Jennifer Lopez’s production banner, Nuyorican Productions form creative partnership
June 8, 2021 via The Futon Critic
Together with their partner Benny Medina, Lopez and Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas will produce a range of films, television series, scripted and unscripted content, with an emphasis on projects that support a variety of female actresses, writers and filmmakers.

Riverdale star Lili Reinhart signs first-look film and TV deal with Amazon
June 7, 2021 via Yahoo! news
Lili Reinhart, one of the stars of “Riverdale” and “Hustlers”, has signed a first-look film and TV production contract with Amazon Studios.

Eric Paquette, former CEO of Sony Pictures, launches Meridian Pictures
June 4, 2021 via Deadline – Hollywood Breaking News
Eric Paquette, former senior vice president at Sony Pictures and MGM, has founded Meridian Pictures, a new company focused on film and television projects.

Blumhouse, Jamie Lee Curtis acquire Patricia Cornwell’s “Kay Scarpetta” for television
June 3, 2021 via Hollywood Reporter
Based on the author’s crime novels, the companies will develop a script series.

Lionsgate Launches New Steven Rowley Novel “The Guncle”; ‘Cruella’ producer Kristin Burr on board Pic
June 2, 2021 via Deadline – Hollywood Breaking News
Lionsgate has acquired the rights to The Guncle, the latest book by bestselling author Steven Rowley.

Music business

Rolling Stones, Tom Jones, Emeli Sandé, Pet Shop Boys and More Join Call for Prime Minister to “Fix Streaming”
June 7, 2021 via the music week
The Rolling Stones, Pet Shop Boys, Emeli Sandé, Barry Gibb, Van Morrison, Sir Tom Jones and the estates of John Lennon and Joe Strummer have written to the Prime Minister “on behalf of today’s generation of artists, musicians and songwriters here at the UN KINGDOM”.

Spotify’s Discovery Mode at the Request of Congress: The Problems and Actions
June 7, 2021 via RAIN News
Spotify CEO and Chairman Daniel Ek has received a letter from Congress signed by Jerry Nadler, Judicial Committee Chair, and Henry Johnson Jr., Subcommittee Chair, Courts, Intellectual Property and Internet. The letter questions the functionality and purpose of Spotify’s relatively new Discovery Mode, an advertising tool offered to recording artists and record labels that influences which songs make it onto listeners’ playlists.

Universal Music Group is officially the purpose-earning company’s material
June 4, 2021 via Yahoo Finance – Top Stories
New York-based Pershing Square Tontine Holdings (PSTH) confirmed on June 4, 2021 that it is in talks to acquire ten percent of Universal Music Group for around four billion dollars.

YouTube paid out $ 4 billion to the music industry in the past 12 months
June 2, 2021 via the music week
YouTube has announced that it has paid more than four billion dollars (2.8 billion pounds) to the music industry in the past 12 months.

Vimeo employees are unaware of copyright infringement
June 1, 2021 via Bloomberg Law (subscription may be required)
Capitol Records LLC, Virgin Records America Inc., and others have lost a summary judgment in a copyright infringement case involving videos uploaded to Vimeo.com, according to a federal court ruling in New York.

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs)

Ikonick signs NFT license agreement with Bravado, Universal Music Group’s merchandise unit (EXCLUSIVE)
June 8, 2021 on diversity
Leading digital art brand Ikonick partners with Bravado, Universal Music Group’s global merchandising and brand management company, to produce, market and distribute canvas art and NFTs for their extensive artist roster.

Nftfy heralds a new NFT era with its NFT marketplace
June 8, 2021 via AMB Crypto
As a pioneer in the cryptographic space, Nftfy will revolutionize the industry by becoming the first decentralized protocol that allows NFT owners to trust and fractionate their NFTs without permission.

NFTs come to the Olympics with digital Olympic pins
June 4, 2021 via Crypto News Australia
The International Olympic Committee plans to launch a range of collectibles in the form of digital, non-fungible tokens.

Should crypto and NFTs be part of your retirement plan?
June 3, 2021 via Yahoo Finance – Top Stories
Digital assets like NFTs and cryptocurrencies have been in the headlines lately. In May, analysts said the total market value of crypto assets was close to that of gold.

Publication right

Louisiana College Athlete Endorsement Bill goes to Governor
June 8, 2021 via Greensboro News & Record
Louisiana is poised to join more than a dozen other states enabling college athletes to make money from endorsements and sponsorship deals to gain momentum across the country as the National Collegiate Athletic Association picks up a national Directive is not operating.

The youth sports streaming powerhouse BallerTV enables the nation’s future basketball stars to monetize their likeness
June 8, 2021 via Business Wire – Multimedia News
BallerTV, the leading streaming destination for youth sports, takes a stand and treads a path to pay young athletes.

New York’s post-mortem right to publicity recognizes rights after death
June 6, 2021 via Digital Music News
New York State grants post-mortem publishing rights to deceased personalities for 40 years – 30 years less than in California.

Twitter, Opendorse Deal Targets College Athletes Ready To Make Money
June 3, 2021 via Sportico – Business
Since college athletes can capitalize on their names, pictures and likenesses this summer, the athlete marketing platform Opendorse and the social media juggernaut Twitter have teamed up to make these first deals easier.

Circuit Skeptical Anchor can sue platforms for publishing rights
June 2, 2021 via Bloomberg Law (subscription may be required)
A panel of third district judges examined the claim made by a Philadelphia news anchor that social media platforms like Facebook could be held liable for any use of their image because the publishing rights are intellectual property.

Sports activities & Leisure Highlight – Could 2021 #3 | Foster Garvey PC

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As readers from last week will recall, we spent some time examining the notion of credibility. One week later, we’re witnessing what credibility (or lack thereof) hath wrought on our subjects. Bob Baffert? Banned from New York horseracing tracks (including the upcoming Belmont Stakes) and facing potential civil liability from bettors who claim that the horse that they had bet on should have won the race – not Baffert-trained and doping offender Medina Spirit. The weight of Elon Musk’s word in the cryptocurrency world? Apparently hugely significant as cryptocurrency markets have been in freefall mode since his latest comments about Bitcoin and Dogecoin. Mark Emmert and the NCAA? Predictably inert on the subject of name, image and likeness (NIL) laws, setting up July 1st as a looming question mark for whether and how college athletes will be able to reap the benefits of recently passed legislation in a handful of states, as a flurry of activity in the private sector seems to suggest that change is on the horizon – whether the NCAA likes it or not.

With the stage set, below is a sampling of the other stories I am highlighting this week:

  • As all-time basketball great Kobe Bryant was officially enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame (and I encourage each of you to take 12 minutes of your day to watch his wife, Vanessa’s courageous and moving tribute to the late legend), uncertainty remains as to his estate’s destination for his brand’s sneaker and apparel endorsement after having parted with Nike a few months ago – with some speculating that a return to Nike might actually be the most logical fit.
  • NBCUniversal’s new marketing playbook in the increasingly fragmented media landscape includes serving as liaison between NBCUniversal talent and brands. With their recently striking a development deal with entertainment superstar Miley Cyrus, one can’t help but wonder how they will leverage that relationship.
  • Though evidence suggests celebrities do not have a significant impact on the public’s likelihood of getting a COVID-19 vaccine (apparently that un-sourced meme that your friend’s great aunt shared on Facebook carries more weight), many personalities are nevertheless taking up the mantle.
  • A new platform enables celebrities to create their artificial intelligence-generated “deepfake” voice recordings for use in connection with brand endorsements, sponsorships and the like. Apart from drumming up memories/fears from a litany of sci-fi films, this new platform also raises legal questions relating to ownership of the resulting recordings and control over the exploitation of one’s name, image and likeness.
  • NFT marketplace, NBA TopShot, faces new scrutiny as part of a class action lawsuit alleging that the “Moments” or tokenized basketball highlights being sold to platform users are not just mere collectibles but are actually securities being sold in violation of U.S. securities laws. However, there may be good reason to think the lawsuit might not last a “moment” longer.

Endorsement Deals, Sponsorships & Investments

How Sneakers Became a $79 billion Business—and an Undisputed Cultural SYymbol for Our Times
May 18, 2021 via Co.Exist
Sneakers, once the symbol of athleticism, have transcended their primary function to become commercial and fashionable objects of desire. From sportswear and street style to catwalk fashion, sneakers have made their mark as cultural commodities.

What Celebrities and Brands Stand to Gain from NFT Startups
May 17, 2021 via Inc.com
From tennis champion Naomi Osaka to actor Johnny Depp, dozens of celebrities have launched non-fungible tokens (NFTs) — digital assets such as artwork and collectibles that are bought and sold using cryptocurrency — in recent weeks. Now, many are stepping even further into the trendy industry by backing NFT startups.

Cubs News: Ryne Sandberg Now Smokes Marijuana Almost Every Day
May 14, 2021 via Cubbie’s Crib
So, apparently Cubs legend Ryne Sandberg is a big weed guy now. There’s something I never thought I’d write. But with marijuana going mainstream more and more by the day, the Hall of Fame second baseman is now a spokesperson for the Chicago-based Verilife.

LeBron James Imagines Life With A Snooze Button in New Mtn Dew Rise Campaign
May 13, 2021 via Forbes – Business (subscription may be required)
Has LeBron James always been an early riser? Well, he’s never had much time for the snooze button. “I’ve always kind of been a morning person,” the Los Angeles Lakers basketball star tells Forbes. “Over the last I would say 16 years, I have turned more into a morning person, because you start to have kids, and when you start to have kids, you don’t really get to decide if you want to be at night or morning person. You are a what-they-are person.”

Would You Pay £99,000 for This Self-Lacing Nike? Sneakers Unboxed Review
May 13, 2021 via The Guardian (Australia) – World News
‘It was all about being the freshest,” says Koe Rodriguez, toothbrush in hand. “That’s how you pulled honeys, how you got respect from the hard rocks. That’s how you laid your game down. It was all about being fresh.” The hip-hop historian’s not talking about his teeth, though, but his sneakers.

Celebrities Don’t Move the Needle When It Comes to Vaccine Willingness
May 13, 2021 via Morning Consult News
After administering more than 260 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, the United States now faces its next hurdle: encouraging hesitant Americans to get the shot. Famous figures, including director Spike Lee, Fox News anchor Brian Kilmeade and former President Barack Obama, have stepped up to share their experiences, taking on roles as vaccine influencers.

The World’s 10 Highest-Paid Athletes: Conor McGregor Leads A Group Of Sports Stars Unfazed By The Pandemic
May 12, 2021 via Forbes – Business
THE WORLD’S 10 A record four athletes — including one quarterback and two soccer legends—each earned $100 million or more in the past year. For much of 2020, the world’s leading athletes were sidelined, working for reduced pay, playing to empty seats or isolated in competitive bubbles designed to thwart a pandemic that has sapped billions of dollars from professional sports. Still, for the best of the best, things couldn’t be better — at least in terms of their financial heft.

Film & TV

MarVista Entertainment, Elefantec Global Team for Spanish-Language Movie Powerhouse (EXCLUSIVE)
May 18, 2021 via Variety
MarVista Entertainment, one of the world’s biggest independent movie studios, and Elefantec Global, the media-entertainment startup launched by former Televisa execs José “Pepe” Bastón and Jeff Symon, have joined forces to create a Spanish-language movie studio.

NBCUniversal Television and Streaming Inks Pact With Superstar Miley Cyrus
May 17, 2021 via RealScreen
The Peacock brand has inked an overall talent and development deal with multi-hyphenate global superstar Miley Cyrus. Part of the agreement includes a first look deal between NBCU Television and Streaming and Hopetown Entertainment, the prodco owned by Cyrus (pictured) and her mother, Trish.

Netflix’s Hefty ‘Knives Out’ Deal Signals Toward a Future in fFanchises, TV Adaptations of Films
May 17, 2021 via Firstpost
The “Knives Out” deal also highlights how much easier it is for a streaming service to exploit an already known title than to build one itself. “Knives Out.” Suddenly, the $40 million whodunit, which Rian Johnson (Looper) wrote and directed as a “palate cleanser” after he completed a Star Wars, was a juggernaut that commanded top dollar in a frenetic bidding war.

Behind NBC’s Decision to Put the Golden Globes On ice for a Year
May 15, 2021 via Los Angeles Times
Throughout the scandal swirling around the Golden Globe Awards show, longtime broadcaster NBC appeared flat-footed — seemingly unprepared to tackle the crisis that was consuming one of its biggest live TV events. Since late February, the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn., the group that owns the lucrative Golden Globes franchise, has been at the center of a furor over alleged ethical lapses, self-dealing and a lack of Black members — revelations that surfaced in a Los Angeles Times investigation.

Jimmy Fallon, NBC Making ‘The Kids Tonight Show’ Under New Development Deal
May 13, 2021 via Variety
Jimmy Fallon, host of “The Tonight Show,” and NBCU are expanding their programming together under a new development deal. “The Kids Tonight Show,” a late-night program hosted by young people, is among the projects being developed under a new pact struck between NBCUniversal and Fallon’s production outlet, Electric Hot Dog.

ESPN Inks Slimmed-Down $4 Billion MLB Rights Extension
May 13, 2021 via Sportico – Business
ESPN has signed off on a renewal of its MLB rights deal, inking an extension that will keep the cable network’s signature Sunday Night Baseball telecast on the air through 2028. The seven-year pact was announced on May 13 at the top of Disney’s second-quarter earnings call.

Music Biz

Leonard Williams Can’t Revive Warner Music Royalties Class Suit
May 18, 2021 via Bloomberg Law – Intellectual Property News (subscription may be required)
Musician Leonard Williams lost his bid to undo a lower court’s denial of class certification in a lawsuit against Warner Music Group Corp. over allegedly unpaid foreign streaming royalties, according to an unpublished decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Google Reaches Tentative Deal in Tin Pan Alley Copyright Suits
May 14, 2021 via Bloomberg Law – News Top Stories (subscription may be required)
Google LLC has reached a tentative settlement that would resolve three copyright lawsuits brought by the heirs of prominent Tin Pan Alley songwriters in California federal court over the availability of alleged “pirate” digital copies of their music on the internet search giant’s platform.

Non-Fungible Tokens

Judges Can’t Allow For-Profit Group to Use Likeness for NFTs
May 18, 2021 via Bloomberg Law – Big Law Business – Top Stories (subscription may be required)
Group wants to use Tennessee judges’ images to raise money for charity. It would take some proceeds, which is not ethically permissible, opinion says. Judges can’t ethically participate in a for-profit group’s plan to use their likeness for unique, or non-fungible, tokens that would be auctioned to raise money in in part for legal aid groups, the Tennessee judicial ethics committee said.

NBA’s Top Shot Lawsuit Says Dapper’s NFTs Need SEC Clampdown
May 14, 2021 via Sportico Business
A new lawsuit charges that the sale of NBA Top Shot “Moments” violates the federal Securities Act of 1933, a law designed to both safeguard investors in the purchase of publicly offered securities and deter fraudulent acts in the marketing of those securities. Dapper Labs, a Vancouver-based blockchain company that has partnered with the NBA, and its CEO, Roham Gharegozlou, are accused of illegally selling unregistered securities. The company, however, has a number of defenses that it can and likely will offer in future court filings.

NFTs are Trending Up. Here are the Opportunities for Brands and Retailers
May 12, 2021 via CB Insights – Blog
NFTs are a very real opportunity for brands and retailers, with applications ranging from authenticating tangible goods to reducing friction in e-commerce to generating new revenue through virtual sales. Here are the top-line bullets you need to know.

Why This Unicorn Founder Believes NFTs Could Still Have a Bright Future
May 12, 2021 via Insider Monkey Blog
NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, have somehow managed to capture the public imagination like no other crypto trend has before. Even as the price of Bitcoin was skyrocketing to new all-time highs, the global headlines were focused on the $69 million Christie’s auction of Beeple’s art collection, and names including Eminem, Grimes, and Jack Dorsey have famously minted and sold their own NFTs. However, after the explosive hype of early 2021, it now seems that the initial boom is starting to die down.

Right of Publicity

La. Senate Votes for College Athlete Endorsement Deal Bill
May 18, 2021 via New Orleans City Business – News
The Louisiana Senate unanimously voted on May 17 to let college athletes make money off endorsements and sponsorship deals, similar to actions being taken across several states. Sen. Pat Connick’s bill could have had Louisiana as the first state to allow student athletes to earn cash off their name, image or likeness.

‘Dating App’ for Athletes and Brands Ends Seed Round With Eye on NCAA
May 18, 2021 via Sportico – Business
As it looks to make immediate inroads in the impending collegiate name, image and likeness market, digital marketplace Icon Source closed a $1.6 million seed round with support from existing and new investors, including Hawke Ventures. Hawke Ventures, whose portfolio includes subscription box company FabFitFun and beauty and wellness festival host, Beautycon, is the venture capital arm of marketing consultancy Hawke Media. Icon Source’s chief revenue officer Scott Taylor previously held the same role at Hawke Media, which has worked with several thousand brands to date. Icon Source said it plans to tap into that expansive network as it continues to bring companies onto its platform.

College Athletes May Finally See Their Big Pay Day
May 17, 2021 via Social Media Biz
College sports have always been a draw for millions of fans across the nation, and with nearly 8 million viewers tuning in to this year’s March Madness, it should come as no shock that there’s plenty of money to be made. In fact, college sports bring in an average of $1 billion in revenue each year. While organizations like the NCAA and the universities that educate these student athletes certainly stand to make big bucks, there’s been a long standing debate as to whether or not the athletes who are the face of the game should get a piece of the pie as well.

Now There’s a Deepfake Audio Platform Where Celebrities Can License AI-Generated Voice Clips
May 16, 2021 via Gizmodo
Whenever deepfakes make the news, it’s almost always for the latest terrifying way bad actors have figured out how to spawn hoaxes or cyberbully people using the AI-powered technology. However, the media industry has found some more practical (and less sinister) applications, such as using face swaps to craft more realistic visual effects, synching actors’ mouths with dialogue in dubbed films, and, now, automating voice work.

Sports activities & Leisure Highlight – April 2021 #5 | Foster Garvey PC

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First and foremost (and so as not to affect Sir Anthony Hopkins – lest I suffer the wrath of Hannibal Lecter myself) the late Chadwick Boseman should have won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. Point. Indeed, from the Boseman NFT contained in the attendees’ “pouch” to postponing the Best Actor category until the end of the night, the awards show was apparently orchestrated since King T’challa’s victory was a foregone conclusion was – until it wasn’t. We thank Boseman’s family and Hopkins for treating the news with grace, but this appeared to be a disappointment for the Academy. When we talk about treating messages with grace, let’s take stock of what’s on my radar this week:

  • One of the most exciting days in the life of an aspiring professional footballer, NFL Draft Day, is just around the corner. And even before the names of many players are brought onto the big stage, they benefit from advertising contracts. In particular, suspected # 1 overall pick, Clemson University quarterback Trevor Lawrence, hits the headlines with an advertising contract for a cryptocurrency app that pays compensation in cryptocurrency, giving new meaning to the term “new money.” In the meantime, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) continues to feel pressure from new legislative developments that would allow college athletes to get advertising deals while they are still in college.
  • In just three years since his first investment in Irish whiskey brand Proper No. Twelve sees professional mixed martial artist and boxer Conor McGregor green and pays out $ 600 million.
  • Mixing entertainment with food is a breeze, so it’s only natural for fast food chains to partner with big-name recording artists like Travis Scott and BTS to increase their bottom line.
  • The Golden State Warriors with Silicon Valley in their backyard are based on their creative technical roots and become the first NBA team to publish their own NFTs. Similar moves in the league (and presumably in other sports leagues as well) are sure to follow.

Thanks for stopping by. See you in May!

Endorsement Deals, Sponsoring & Investments

Ethical to Crypto, the changing nature of sports endorsements
April 25, 2021 via Money Control – Sports Store
Gymnast Simone Biles’ move from Nike to Athleta, basketball player Wilson Chandler’s contract with an NFT brand, shows that athletic endorsements go well beyond cola and sneakers. There was a time when sneakers, drinks, and fast food chains were the meat and potatoes of athletes. They still exist, but things are changing.

Nike reacts to Simone Biles’ departure as the pressure on the brand mounts
April 24, 2021 via FohBoh
Under pressure both domestically and abroad, Nike is grappling with the end of two major advertising deals at a time when Wall Street is losing confidence in the stock. The Swoosh brand suffered another blow on Friday morning (April 23) when the Wall Street Journal reported that Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles ended her six-year relationship with Nike and will now partner with Gap owner (GPS) Athleta .

Better Plant launches Jusu Labs for influencer and celebrity partnerships
April 22, 2021 via Kingston Whig Standard
Better Plant Sciences Inc., a wellness company that develops and sells herbal products, announces the launch of Jusu Labs, a division of Better Plant dedicated to partnering with celebrities and other influencers to generate additional revenue streams by selling healthier ones and create more sustainable products. Branded products for their audience.

New Balance signs Boston Celtics Aaron Nesmith
April 26, 2021 via SGB Online – headlines of business news outdoors
New Balance signed Boston Celtics newcomer Aaron Nesmith on a multi-year sponsorship deal that marks the brand’s fifth NBA player endorsement deal since returning to basketball in 2019.

RIP: The Creepy Business of Dead Celebrity Postings on Social Media|
April 25, 2021 via Torrent Freak
The dead are more alive than ever. Thanks to social media and inherited intellectual property rights, stars of the past enjoy digital immortality. Icons like Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, and John Lennon continue to be active on blue tick social media accounts, often controlled by for-profit companies that do not require family ties to the deceased.

Vanessa Bryant announces good news about Kobe Bryant – Nike sneakers despite contract end
April 25, 2021 via EssentialSports
Kobe Bryant is one of the most legendary characters in the NBA. Bryant’s 20-year career has been one of the league’s biggest draws. Kobe was an icon of the league and helped spark fan interest when Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson left the game. Kobe’s influence on the pitch has been huge, especially since his line of Nike sneakers was a fan favorite. The news of the deal between Nike and Kobe Bryant, which is about to expire, naturally angered fans.

Celebrities play a role in food partnerships, endorsements, and investor groups
April 23, 2021 via the Food Institute
While COVID-19 has kept celebrities off the red carpet, a number of product collaborations, endorsements, and corporate funding efforts have kept them in the spotlight. And while Star Power has certainly proven to be a valuable asset over the past century, some of the biggest names in sports and entertainment have been able to capitalize on their success in truly unique ways across the food landscape, especially during the pandemic.

Trevor Lawrence Signs Contract With Cryptocurrency App And Receives Bonus In Crypto
April 26, 2021 via Yahoo! news
The NFL draft doesn’t start until Thursday (April 29), but Trevor Lawrence is already doing business like a professional soccer player. Lawrence, the overwhelming favorite who is # 1 on the draft, has signed a multi-year endorsement deal with the cryptocurrency investment app Blockfolio.

Barrel Cash: Conor sells whiskey for $ 600 million
April 27, 2021 via ESPN News
Conor McGregor is no longer the majority owner of the whiskey brand he founded, but the UFC star has contributed to his growing fortune. Proximo Spirits, a company that owns Jose Cuervo and other alcohol brands, acquired a controlling interest in Proper No. Purchased up to $ 600 million worth of Twelve Irish whiskey. .

Movies & TV

The television audience’s Academy Awards drops to 9.85 million
April 26, 2021 via ABC News – Money
The Academy Awards television audience plunged to 9.85 million ABC viewers, less than half of the previous Oscars low, and continued the amazing trend of viewers gearing up for awards shows.

NHL deal gives Turner six months to develop a TV plan
April 27, 2021 via Sportico – Business
The NHL and Turner Sports officially announced their union on Tuesday when both parties announced that they had signed a seven-year contract for the league’s so-called “B” media rights package.

English Premier League in conversation about the transfer of current media rights with Sky, BT and Amazon
April 28, 2021 via Variety
The UK Premiere League (EPL), the UK’s premier national soccer league, is reportedly discussing the option to skip the next domestic TV rights auction for the competition and extend its current contract with Sky, BT and Amazon.

Music biz

BTS, Travis Scott and other celebrities make delicious pop for fast food menus
April 27, 2021 via Whittier Daily News
It’s not uncommon for pop superstars’ music to appear in commercials, but these days they have a side of fries. In the past few months, a number of stars from the music world have partnered with fast food chains that sell burgers and help sell the musicians to a wider audience.

Songs by Beyoncé and Aretha Franklin change hands in the music deal
April 26, 2021 via Bloomberg – Top Stories (subscription required)
Concord Music Group acquires more than 145,000 music rights from Downtown Music Holdings and brings songs by Beyoncé and Aretha Franklin under the same roof as Rodgers & Hammerstein and Kidz Bop. The deal combines two of the largest independent music catalogs in the world.

Dogecoin Prize: Snoop Dogg joins DOGE Hype Train with ‘Absurd’ music video from ‘Snoop Doge’
April 22, 2021 via Daily Express
The Dogecoin confirmation is sure to be welcomed by long-time DOGE holders who are hoping to push the virtual token past the £ 0.72 (USD 1) price. DOGE dealers gathered on social media last week and unofficially marked April 20th (April 20th) – a reference to smoking cannabis – Dogeday.

Not fungible tokens

The Golden State Warriors are the first professional sports team to launch an NFT collection
April 27, 2021 via Business Insider – Top Stories
The NBA’s Golden State Warriors are diving into the world of digital collectibles with the launch of an NFT collection. The NBA team announced on Tuesday (April 27) that it would be the first time a professional sports team has launched a digital collection.

Non-Fungible Brands: A Look at the Different Forms of Ownership and Potential Legal Issues Associated with Their Rise
April 18, 2021 via North Carolina – Journal of Law & Technology
Non-fungible tokens (NFT) are fueling the recent wave of interest in the blockchain space. An NFT is a verified asset using blockchain technology “on which a computer network records transactions and provides buyers with proof of authenticity and ownership”. The transaction becomes part of the permanent public record and serves as a certificate that cannot be changed or deleted.

Eminem, White Stripes Join the NFT Craze
April 23, 2021 via Metro Times Detroit
Just three weeks after Saturday Night Live faked Eminem’s 2002 hit “Without Me” to explain the latest baffling and tangled cryptocurrency craze, the 48-year-old rapper announced that his Stans will soon have access to his new batch of digital collectibles You can’t really touch it.

Hollywood Elite will receive NFTs in recognition of the upcoming awards show
April 23, 2021 via CryptoPost
A project will distribute non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in the gift bags of 25 actors, actresses and directors nominated for their roles in feature films. According to Nomine (eth), a project created in collaboration with the online marketplace Rarible, Metaversal and AdVenture Media, 25 of the 115 people nominated at this year’s Academy Awards will receive three non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in unofficial gift bags.

Right to advertising

College Athlete Image Rights Act supported
April 27, 2021 via the Daily Journal of Commerce – Seattle
U.S. Representative Anthony Gonzalez, a former Ohio state soccer player, reintroduced bipartisan bill on Monday (April 26) that gives college athletes the right to make money through endorsements and sponsorship deals. Gonzalez, R-Ohio and Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., Jointly sponsored the Student Athlete Level Playing Field Act.

NCAA’s Collision Course with State NIL Laws: Four Scenarios
April 26, 2021 via Sportico – Law
The university sports industry is facing an impending and complicated legal crisis. At least four states will come into effect on July 1st. Florida, Alabama, New Mexico, and Mississippi will be the first to have active NIL laws on the books unless judicial or legislative interference is taken.

Sports activities & Leisure Highlight – April 2021 | Foster Garvey PC

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March is over, a new month begins.
Congrats on the Final Four to the Zags, Cougars, Bears and Bruins.

Opening Day is upon us, it’s time to play ball,
And battle for the World Series title deep into the fall.

Enough setting the stage, let’s get on with the show,
Here’s what’s going on this week to put you in the know:

A devilish sneaker collaboration leads to a lawsuit by Nike,
with allegations that its brand was tarnished and that consumer confusion is likely.

NFTs as collectibles remain one of the hottest items in town,
as the creators of NBA Top Shot close a huge financing round.

Apple throws it support behind a DIY music distribution up-start
That enables creators to shun labels and retain ownership of their art.

Against the NCAA, student-athletes took their case to the Supreme Court,
And Justices tipped their hands to show the NCAA skepticism and the athletes support.

Will be back next week with my usual pithy prose,
If you guessed this was April Fools’ hijinks, you hit it right on the nose.

Endorsement Deals, Sponsorships & Investments

Nike Gets Restraining Order Against Lil Nas X’s ‘Satan Shoes’
April 1, 2021 via Yahoo! News
Nike is waging an all-out war with the devil. The apparel company has successfully blocked the sale of Lil Nas X’s “Satan Shoes” — at least for now. On Wednesday (March 31), a U.S. District Court in New York approved Nike’s request for a temporary restraining order against MSCHF, the art collective that collaborated with the rapper to create a pair of sneakers containing “one drop” of human blood. They used modified Nike Air Max 97s for the collaboration…

Brand Blasphemy? What Nike’s Move To Sue MSCHF for Lil Nas X ‘Satan Shoes’ Tells Us About Pop Culture
March 31, 2021 via Forbes (subscription may be required)
Lil Nas X has hit a rocky road in his ascent to pop-stardom with the now viral controversy surrounding his “Satan Shoes” designed by the art collective, aptly named MSCHF. Infamous for containing a drop of human blood in the soles, the “Satan Shoes” by MSCHF is more a marketing scheme for Lil Nas X’s next music project…

Icon Source Launches 50 for 50 Campaign To Support Female Athletes
March 31, 2021 via Yahoo Finance – Top Stories
Icon Source, a digital marketplace that connects aspiring brands and professional athletes, launches 50 for 50 campaign to help boost awareness and financial support for professional women in sports. Icon Source will waive its fees for the first 50 companies to commit to spending a minimum of $10,000 over the next 12 months with female athletes…

Chinese Stars Dump Nike, Adidas and H&M as Beijing Attacks Western Fashion Brands Over Xinjiang
March 25, 2021 via Hollywood Reporter
A slew of A-list actors and musicians, including Wang Yibo and Eason Chan, are ditching their lucrative endorsement deals after a number of Western brands expressed concern about reports of forced labor in China’s Xinjiang province. Chinese state TV called Thursday for a boycott of H&M as Beijing lashed out …

Novak Djokovic and a New Players Group Want Tennis To Fix Its Broken Economics
March 24, 2021 via Bloomberg – News (subscription may be required)
It was a rare sight at last year’s pandemic-interrupted U.S. Open: a crowd. One afternoon in late August, a group of about 80 male tennis players in T-shirts and masks gathered at the Grandstand stadium in Flushing Meadows, filling up rows of dark-blue seats, like schoolboys assembled for a socially distanced class picture. The only action on the court below was a practice session. The 57th-ranked female player, Ajla Tomljanovic of Australia, was rallying with a partner, glancing up in bewilderment as the men applauded between points…

Music Biz

Apple Invests in a Music Start-Up Challenging the Major Record Labels
March 31, 2021 via New York Times – Most Recent (subscription may be required)
Apple is investing in UnitedMasters, a music distribution company that lets musicians bypass traditional record labels. Artists who distribute through UnitedMasters keep ownership of their master recordings and pay either a yearly fee or 10 percent of their royalties…

Ed Sheeran Copyright Spat Stayed Pending Separate Case Outcome
March 30, 2021 via Bloomberg Law – News Top Stories (subscription may be required)
A copyright infringement fight between Ed Sheeran and Structured Asset Sales LLC, which owns part of Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On,” is paused pending a decision in a related case, a federal judge ruled…

Justin Tranter, Emily Warren, More Songwriters Sign Letter Calling for Artists To Stop Demanding Credit for Songs They Didn’t Write
March 30, 2021 via Variety
Three days after an anonymous songwriters group named the Pact called for artists to stop demanding credit for songs they did not write, the group has followed with a letter signed by Emily Warren, Ross Golan, Justin Tranter, Victoria Monet and others pledging that the signatories “will not give publishing or songwriting credit to an artist who did not create or change the lyric or melody or otherwise contribute to the composition without a reasonably equivalent/meaningful exchange for all the writers on the song.”

Bob Dylan Fights Back Against Copyright Suit
March 29, 2021 via Jewish Business News
Bob Dylan is fighting back against a civil suit. The legendary musician was sued by the widow of one of his collaborators over claims that she should be entitled to a share of proceeds from Dylan’s recent sale of his entire song catalog. The Tambourine Man is trying to get the law suit tossed. Last December Robert Zimmerman, AKA Bob Dylan, sold his entire song catalog to Universal Music Publishing Group for $300 million…

Record Labels May Have Falsely Taken Credit for Artists’ Works, Charter Tells Court
March 27, 2021 via Torrent Freak
Charter Communications, one of the largest Internet providers in the United States, stands accused of deliberately turning a blind eye to its pirating subscribers. Several music companies including Capitol Records, Warner Bros. and Sony Music filed a lawsuit against the ISP, arguing that it failed to terminate or otherwise take meaningful action against the accounts of repeat infringers…

TuneIn Loses Appeal Against Judgment in Sony and Warner Copyright Infringement Lawsuit in the U.K.
March 26, 2021 via Music Business Worldwide (subscription may be required)
The Court of Appeal of England and Wales has upheld a copyright infringement verdict against a U.S. streaming radio service TuneIn. The company was hoping to overturn the judgment in the Warner Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment copyright infringement lawsuit that was made in November 2019…

RIAA, NMPA, More Music Groups Slam Twitter’s ‘Rampant Theft of Creative Works’ in Letter To Congress
March 25, 2021 via Variety
Ahead of Twitter’s CEO Jack Dorsey testifying before the House Energy & Commerce Committee this afternoon, the RIAA, the National Music Publishers Association, the American Association of Independent Music, Songwriters of North America and the Music Artists Coalition have jointly penned a letter to committee leadership detailing how Twitter has “failed to meet the basic standards of moderation when it comes to the rampant theft of creative works on its platform,” and to ask the congress members to engage Dorsey on its accountability…

What’s in a Name? For Musical Posers, Bill Could Bring Hammer of Justice
March 25, 2021 via GPB News
Georgia is known for having lots of artists who are making waves within the music industry today, but a bill backed by a local organization hopes to bring protection to legacy artists living in the state. A Senate bill, SB 157, seeks to outlaw the “deceptive practice of musical performance groups advertising and appearing as the recording group without the recording group’s permission or denoting that it is a salute or tribute performance.”

Non-fungible Tokens

Inside Hollywood’s Rush To Cash in on NFTs
March 30, 2021 via TheWrap
With the new NFT (non-fungible token) market fetching multimillions of dollars for digital art assets including jpegs, video clips and even tweets — like $ 2.8 million for Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s first tweet — it comes as no surprise that Hollywood is jumping on the bandwagon in a feverish quest…

NFT Mania Subsides After Breakout Month of Sales
March 31, 2021 via Bloomberg – News (subscription may be required)
For the digital art market, there really was no direction to go other than down. Weeks after non-fungible token mania reached a crescendo with the record breaking $69.3 million Beeple auction at Christie’s, sales figures across online marketplaces for digital art and collectibles have made a swift retreat…

NFTs Are Suddenly Everywhere, But They Have Some Big Problems
March 30, 2021 via CNN Edition
For several weeks, it’s been near impossible to exist on the internet without at least hearing a mention of NFTs. Short for non-fungible tokens, they are pieces of digital content linked to the blockchain, the digital database underpinning cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and ethereum…

Dapper Labs, Creators of NBA Top Shot, Get $305 Million in Funding, Including From Michael Jordan
March 30, 2021 via Chicago Tribune
Canadian blockchain technology company Dapper Labs has secured $305 million in private funding — some of it from current and former NBA players, including Michael Jordan — to scale up its virtual NBA trading card site, the company said Tuesday…

Billionaire Mark Cuban Wants To Turn Mavericks Tickets Into NFTs
March 29, 2021 via Yahoo Finance – Top Stories
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has always been a bit of a financial maverick himself, so it’s no surprise that he’s taking an offbeat approach to generating new revenue that involves NFTs, or nonfungible tokens. As reported by CNBC on Friday (March 26), Cuban wants to turn Mavericks tickets into NFTs so fans can buy and resell them – and the Mavs can make royalties on the sales…

As Worries Spark Over the Carbon Impacts of NFTs, Some Unexpected Boosters Come To Their Defense
March 30, 2021 via GeekWire
Time will tell whether buying NFTs for Beeple’s digital collage for $69 million or Twitter founder Jack Dorsey’s first tweet for $2.9 million were smart investments, or simply falling prey to hyped consumer fads dating back to the tulipmania of the 1600s. The more urgent question for many is this: What are the climate impacts of tethering the sales of virtual items to blockchains?

How NFT Collectibles Can Lead To the Gamification of Everything
March 31, 2021 via Sportico – Business
It has been almost impossible not to notice the explosive growth of NBA Top Shot and the broader category of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). In just the past several weeks, NBA Top Shot had one 24-hour period in which it saw $10 million in sales; Christie’s auctioned off a piece of digital art for $69 million; Logan Paul completed the sale of $5 million worth of NFTs ahead of a Pokémon card unboxing; and Jack Dorsey’s first tweet, in NFT form, sold for $2.9 million…

Some NFT Sales Could Be Illegal: SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce
March 30, 2021 via Crypto News Australia
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission regulator Hester Peirce – sometimes known as Crypto Mom – said investors should be wary of creating unregistered investment products with NFTs. Fractionalized NFTs could potentially be securities, she said. The hype around NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, refuses to die down, and regulators are taking notice…

New York Opens the First (Physical) Art Gallery Dedicated To NFT
March 30, 2021 via News Break – Top Stories
The New York ‘Superchief Gallery’ this Thursday (April 1) became the first physical gallery in the world to dedicate itself to the exhibition of works in NFT, a new digital art format that has reached stratospheric popularity in recent months…

Blockchain Entrepreneur Explains Why He Is Excited About NFTs
March 29, 2021 via CNBC
Non-fungible tokens should be used as a new tool to monetize digital content in general, not just digital art, says Jiannan Ouyang, co-founder and CEO at Openmining…

Right of Publicity

Supreme Court Weighs Whether NCAA Is Illegally ‘Fixing’ Athlete Compensation
March 31, 2021 via Business Google News
As March Madness heads into its final days, college athletes are playing on a different kind of court: the Supreme Court. On Wednesday (March 31). the justices heard arguments in a case testing whether the NCAA’s limits on compensation for student athletes violate the nation’s antitrust laws…

Take To The Court: Justices Will Hear Case on Student Athlete Compensation
March 31, 2021 via NPR – Morning Edition
As March Madness plays out on TV, the U.S. Supreme Court takes a rare excursion into sports law Wednesday (March 31) in a case testing whether the NCAA’s limits on compensation for student athletes violate the nation’s antitrust laws. The outcome could have enormous consequences for college athletics…

NCAA Board of Governors Chair Expresses Confidence in Emmert
March 27, 2021 via U.S. News & World Report – Top Stories
The Chairman of the NCAA’s Board of Governors gave President Mark Emmert a vote of confidence Saturday (March 27), saying the association’s top governing body was satisfied with how he has addressed inequities in the college basketball tournaments and with his leadership through a tumultuous 10 days…

Supreme Court Takes on NCAA Restrictions
March 31, 2021 via Washington Times
The NCAA and former college athletes are getting ready to play ball at the Supreme Court. With the March Madness basketball tournament ongoing, the high court will hear arguments on Wednesday (March 31) in a case about how colleges can reward athletes who play Division I basketball and football…

Eleven States Have Still Done Nil on Name, Image and Likeness
March 25, 2021 via Sportico – Leagues
Just more than two years since California state Sen. Nancy Skinner introduced SB 206, the nation’s first law addressing the publicity rights of college athletes, the strong majority of the country’s legislatures have jumped on the bandwagon. Despite a pandemic that has severely hindered both lawmaking and sports-playing over the last year, at least 39 state legislatures have by now produced at least some kind of college athlete name, image, likeness (NIL) bill…

Sports activities & Leisure Highlight – March 2021 #4 | Foster Garvey PC

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Happy Spring! After a particularly long winter in several parts of the country, it’s a welcome sight to see many of the well-known hallmarks of this time of year (even if our daily lives are significantly different from what we were two years ago): MLB spring training, awards season, and broken brackets (thank you , Oral Roberts). Without further ado, below is a selection of the latest information to stash in your hood:

  • Despite the previous successes of the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, the NCAA and its Commissioner Mark Emmert received a court press conference in the tournament spotlight. For decades, the relaxation or withdrawal of amateur rules in college sports has seemed to be a chimera at times, but given the prominent activism of athletes and more states taking action on social media to restrict athletes’ publicity rights, we seem close to a tipping point to be (if not on this one).
  • For some time now we’ve been reading about Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) and how popular they have become with athletes and entertainers, as well as retail investors looking to tackle the wave of increasing democratization during the pandemic – but now we’re seeing the data and the trend is astronomical: Since that time last year, 2,000 percent more donations have been collected. While there are no signs of slowing down, athletes, entertainers, and investors are well advised not to lose sight of the investment risk involved.
  • Non-fungible tokens (NFTs), the other asset that has gotten red hot in the increasing digitization of the pandemic-caused world, resulted in another eyebrow raising – the sale of an NFT home for half a million dollars. At that price, I would get my digital guests to take off their NFT shoes at the front door.

Endorsement Deals, Sponsoring & Investments

Cristiano Ronaldo, Tiger Woods and Roger Federer compete for the first athlete to earn $ 1 billion
March 19, 2021 about 90min
Sports legends Cristiano Ronaldo, Roger Federer and Tiger Woods have made astounding sums of money over their careers to date, and now the trio is in the running to become the first athlete to be valued at $ 1 billion.

4x MVP LeBron James signs deal with Mtn Dew from PepsiCo and ends 17-year deal with Coca-Cola
March 19, 2021 via InsideSport
After LeBron James claimed a stake in the Boston Red Sox, he added another line of investments to his extensive portfolio. The King has signed a new contract with PepsiCo’s Mountain Dew Rise Energy Drink.

SPAC fundraising is up a crazy 2,000% in a year
March 17, 2021 via WRAL
The SPAC market is so hot that this year’s fundraiser has already topped all of the 2020s. And it’s not even April. Understandably, the world’s largest asset manager fears that the SPAC boom is exaggerated.

The celebrities From Serena Williams to Paul Ryan are fueling the SPAC boom
March 17, 2021 via the Wall Street Journal – General (subscription required)
A major driver of the boom in acquisition companies for special purposes is a shift in reputation. Blank check companies have been associated with fraud and poor investor returns for decades. Now SPACs are cool and the biggest names in sports, politics, business and entertainment are involved.

The SPAC market is booming, but there are a lot of bad buys. Eight experts say investors should look for something the next time they invest in SPAC
March 20, 2021 via Business Insider Policy
The SPAC market was on fire during the pandemic. In fact, 219 special-purpose acquisition companies raised a record $ 73 billion in 2020, up 462 percent year-over-year in blank check company revenue.

Music IP

According to Tech Firm, musicians are losing billions to illegal business streaming
March 17, 2021 via MENAFN – Global Top News
At a time when musicians are struggling to make a living from streaming, a Swedish tech entrepreneur says his app can increase license fees by curbing the illegal use of music by millions of companies. What many are unaware of is that songs on Spotify, Apple, Deezer, and other streaming platforms are not licensed for use in cafes, stores, restaurants, hair salons, and other businesses.

Spotify justifies its payouts with Loud & Clear
March 21, 2021 via Forbes – Business (subscription required)
This week Spotify released a rationale for paying its royalties, which it dubbed “Loud & Clear”. The idea behind this is to show that there are some artists who are making a lot of money with the platform, but there are also thousands of smaller artists who are making at least some money. No specific artist is cited, but the generality of the data is meaningful.

Not fungible tokens

Is a tweet the next Mona Lisa? Dorsey’s $ 2.9 million sale raises value questions
March 23, 2021 via Bloomberg – Top Stories (subscription required)
In the past, likes, comments, shares, and the like – rather than a price tag – represented the value of tweets, Facebook posts, TikTok videos, Instagram images, and other ephemera on social media. But now there is a new way of measuring their worth: by the millions of dollars they make at auctions. On Monday (March 22nd), Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey sold his very first tweet for $ 2.9 million.

NFT buyers and sellers may be subject to “unknown” capital gains tax in the United States
March 18, 2021 via Cryptocurrency & Bitcoin News
As the U.S. tax season approaches rapidly, investors buying and selling NFTs using crypto could face a painful surprise over capital gains taxes, an expert told CNBC last Thursday. The taxable amount on proceeds from the booming NFT to the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) could soar over 30 percent – detracting from the huge gains from the NFT frenzy.

The world’s first digital NFT home sells for $ 500,000
March 23, 2021 via CNN Edition
After spending so much time at home over the past year, many people long for a change in their surroundings. But if a coat of paint or some creative renovations isn’t enough, there is now a more extreme alternative: the digital home. Mars House, the world’s first digital non-fungible token (NFT) house, recently sold for more than $ 500,000.

Why the NFT art market is exploding
March 22, 2021 via Bloomberg – Top Stories (subscription required)
The digital artist Beeple sold a non-fungible mark of his play “Everydays: The First 5000 Days” for a staggering 69.3 million US dollars. And he’s not the only one benefiting from this exploding NFT market.

Non-fungible tokens: Asset Ownership via Blockchain Rockets Into Legal
March 22, 2021 via the Legal Executive Institute
In a two-part series, we will look at non-fungible tokens and explain what they are and how they will affect numerous industries. and the importance of decentralized finance (DeFi) in understanding the importance of NFT in the legal industry. Welcome to the early days when blockchain is becoming mainstream and the legal industry needs to take note.

Right to advertising

NCAA President Mark Emmert will meet college basketball players behind #NotNCAAProperty – After Men’s Tournament
March 22, 2021 via USA TODAY
NCAA President Mark Emmert said he will meet with the college basketball players behind the hashtag #NotNCAAProperty, but only after the men’s tournament is over. The athletes responsible for first posting and sharing the hashtag on social media asked to meet with Emmert this week to discuss issues related to the online protest, including the unequal facilities for use on men’s and women’s tournaments and the NCAA’s stance on name, image and likeness.

The NCAA is playing the ball in the wrong place
March 22, 2021 via Forbes (subscription required)
While the welcome return of March Madness reminds us of the popularity of college sports, the NCAA continues to spend hundreds of millions on bills and political lobbying, and fights to preserve its exploitative and broken system.

Why NCAA Hate Goes Viral
March 19, 2021 via Slate Magazine
The run-up to this spring’s NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments was different than normal, and not just in the way directly attributed to pandemic sports: the state setups in Indiana and Texas, the near-empty venues, and the uncertainty about whether every team selected for the field could play at all. Remarkably, the biggest stories leading up to the tournament weren’t about any of this, or that Duke and Kentucky both missed the men’s tournament, or the games that were going to be played for the next three weeks. Rather, they focused on the organization that staged these games.

College basketball players urge social media reforms
March 18, 2021 via Honolulu Star Advisor
Several prominent players from the March Madness basketball tournament targeted the NCAA on social media today calling for changes to how they may be compensated by college athletes in the latest organized show of force.

Arizona lawmakers are voting for college athletes to make money
March 18, 2021 via Bloomberg Tax (subscription required)
Arizona would remove barriers to college athletes receiving compensation for using their names or pictures through a bill the state legislature passed Thursday. The measure (SB 1296) would prepare the state for possible changes to the NCAA rules to allow student athletes to enter into advertising contracts with third parties.

Reforms to the NCAA student-athlete model could take the glass slipper away from Cinderella
March 18, 2021 via The Hill – Congress Blog
Everyone in America is busy filling out brackets for the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, trying to identify this year’s Cinderella team, the lesser-known school that will bring a powerhouse to a halt. But proposals in Congress could take the slipper away from Cinderella – and so college fans should keep an eye on Washington while the other is at the tournament.

Will March Madness be the NCAA’s last dance to show amateurism as it knows it?
March 17, 2021 via Forbes (subscription required)
The NCAA men’s basketball championship kicked off a few weeks ago with the four warm-up games and there was immediate excitement – two games ended with a point and another went into overtime. March Madness starts with 16 games on Friday. As exciting as many of these are, there’s a good chance things off the field could be just as exciting. On the eve of the tournament, a handful of players posted their dissatisfaction with the NCAA on social media using the hashtag #NotNCAAproperty.

Sports activities & Leisure Highlight – March 2021 #2 | Foster Garvey PC

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Endorsement Deals & Sponsorships

SEC warns investors against buying SPACs recommended by celebrities
March 10, 2021 via Bloomberg Law – News Top Stories (subscription required)
Beware of celebrities who hyped SPACs (Special Purpose Acquisition Companies). This is the message from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission warning investors on Wednesday, March 10, not to buy shares in special purpose vehicles for acquisitions, based on recommendations from Hollywood actors, professional athletes and famous musicians.

Meet the LA banker advising LeBron James, Bono, and Billie Eilish
March 9, 2021 via Fast Company News
When Paul Wachter first met Maverick Carter and LeBron James in 2005 – two years after the basketball star made his NBA debut – the investment banker knew immediately that he didn’t want to be their financial advisor. He wanted to do business with them. “What I saw in them was that they were really smart and came up with the idea of ​​starting business. . . although they never did … “

Royal Revenue Explained – How Harry & Meghan Could Make Millions
March 4, 2021 via Dubrovnik Times, The (Croatia)
Meghan and Harry are not returning to work as members of the royal family and have a number of public events scheduled, including their Oprah interview. As a result, many have wondered where this leaves their finances. The experts at money.co.uk provide insights into how the ex-royal couple can collect the money they no longer earn from the family.

TikTok stars and social media developers can now join Hollywood’s Top Union
February 16, 2021 via the New York Times (subscription required)
Social media developers have a new way to join Hollywood’s largest union. The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists has approved an “Influencer Agreement” that extends coverage and membership options to online content creators. (The term influencer is interchangeable with the creator or creator of content.) The terms apply to people who are paid to promote products on social media platforms.

Music copyright

Eminem producers argue that the unlicensed pressing of the British label’s Infinite resulted in re-release pans ceasing to be used for the big anniversary
March 10, 2021 via Complete Music Update
The production duo behind Eminem’s early recordings went to the London High Court yesterday. Well, their lawyer zoomed into a court hearing to discuss what damage the Bass Brothers should receive from a UK-based label that released the unlicensed versions of Eminem’s first album ” Infinite “which was originally published by the producer label.

The US Copyright Office issues a supplementary provisional regulation in connection with the Music Modernization Act
March 5, 2021 via US Copyright Office – Latest updates
Pursuant to Title I of the Orrin G. Hatch-Bob-Goodlatte Music Modernization Act (MMA), the Copyright Office has issued a supplementary provisional regulation that updates certain reporting obligations of digital music providers and major licensees without a framework.

Not fungible tokens

JPG file sells for $ 69 million while ‘NFT Mania’ is gaining traction
March 11, 2021 via the New York Times (subscription required)
After more than 180 bids in the last hour, a JPG file from Mike Winkelmann, the digital artist known as Beeple, was sold by Christie’s in an online auction on Thursday (March 11) for 69.3 million US dollars for a fee. The price was a new high for a work of art that only exists digitally, beating auction records for physical paintings by the likes of JMW Turner, Georges Seurat and Francisco Goya. The bid for the two-week Beeple sale, which was only one lot, started at $ 100.

Are your NFTs on the wrong blockchain?
March 10, 2021 via Fortune Magazine
The recent craze for blockchain-powered digital art certificates (NFTs) has centered on the breakout artists, celebrities, musicians, and athletes who created them. This focus is understandable since the value of NFTs as collectibles depends largely on the people or communities involved in creating them. However, the value of NFTs (short for “non-fungible tokens”) depends on another factor that is at least as important and much less discussed than the latest drop from Grimes or Lindsay Lohan. Take a moment to ponder this question: do you know which blockchain NFTs actually exist on?

Rob Gronkowski sells non-fungible brands of Super Bowl moments
March 9, 2021 via Pymnts.com
According to a CNBC report on Tuesday (March 9), Rob Gronkowski of Tampa Bay Buccaneers is selling more than 300 non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that will be in the spotlight during this year’s Super Bowl and the other three Super Bowls of his career. The NFTs, hand-illustrated by the Brazilian art studio Black Madre, show Gronkowski’s highlights in his football career on five digital trading cards. They are sold on the blockchain-based Open Sea marketplace, which specializes in custom digital goods, including toy items, domain names, digital art, and more.

Jack Dorsey sells his first tweet as an NFT for millions of dollars
March 9, 2021 via News Break – Top Stories
Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter, is selling the first tweet on the website – his own – as a non-fungible token. The tweet says “Just Setup My Twttr,” which was posted on March 21, 2006. He has 130,000 retweets and 152,000 likes at the time of writing. With this non-fungible token, or NFT for short, people can sell digital items as collectibles. They exist on a similar blockchain technology as Bitcoin to prove “possession” of them. Mr Dorsey posted a tweet up for auction on a platform called Valuables. The current highest bid is $ 2.5 million from Sina Estavi, CEO of Bridge Oracle.

Non-fungible brands could change “culture, period”, says art specialist
March 5, 2021 via Newsweek
Last week, you may have noticed people online discussing the merits of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), whether they are digital NBA top shot collectibles or the new Kings of Leon album that appears to be sold as the NFT.

Five things brands need to know about non-fungible tokens (NFTs)
March 5, 2021 via Forbes – Business (subscription required)
The space is getting bigger and bigger online. People are creating new areas on the web and pushing the digital frontier further and further into the airwaves. Non-fungible tokens or NFTs are slowly becoming mainstream. Christie’s auction house was founded by James Christie in 1766 and has held auctions of everything from art to jewelry to photography and other collectibles over the centuries. For the first time, Christie’s accepts ether, a type of cryptocurrency, as payment for a Beeple work called Everydays: The First 5000.

Square’s $ 297 million deal for Jay Z’s music service Tidal could bring blockchain to the masses
March 5, 2021 via Reuters – Mobile – Top Stories
Payment firm Square Inc agreed last Thursday to acquire a controlling stake in rapper Jay-Z’s Tidal music streaming service for $ 297 million to publicize blockchain or other new approaches to storing and buying online media do.

Right to advertising

House Panels Oks Bill is said to help college athletes benefit from skills
March 9, 2021 via AZ Capitol Times – Legislature News
State lawmakers are only one step away from giving college and university athletes the opportunity to benefit from their skills, at least indirectly, in Arizona. With just one vote against, the House Education Committee approved a measure requiring all schools to allow physical education students to receive compensation for using their own name, likeness or image.