Industry Lawsuits & Liabilities

In 2011 actress Junie Hoang (Huong Hoang) anonymously filed a lawsuit against IMDb (Internet Movie Database) for releasing her real age on their site. Hoang claims that roles dried up after IMDb mined her account information to learn her true age and posted it on her profile in 2008. She was seeking $1 million dollars in damages for breach of contract. This past Thursday April 11, 2013 a Seattle jury rejected her claims after Hoang failed to present any testimony, documents supporting her damages allegations.

"En Vogue" the all female R&B group known for hits like "Don't Go" and "Whatta Man" have settled the lawsuit over name use. According to the judge's ruling Cindy Herron and Terry Ellis are the only founding members allowed to use it. Maxine Jones and Dawn Robinson the other two founding members had started booking gigs as En Vogue in August of 2012. Herron and Ellis had already formed a limited liability company, En Vogue Enterprises, LLC, in 2006 giving them legal leverage and putting the other members in violation. The ruling explicitly limits how the trademarked name may be used by the other members: "non-derogatory biographical information primarily of a personal nature," and "professionally as ‘formerly of En Vogue' or words to that effect." Herron and Ellis were also able to recover $15,000 in legal fee.

Kanye West is now being sued for a sample in his 2005 hit single "Gold Digger". The children of the late David Pryor are saying West did not get clearance for the sample "get down" which comes from Pryor's 1974 song "Bumpin Bus Stop". 8 years after "Gold Digger: went #1 on the charts the children are now asking a judge to block future sales and for millions in damages.

Each of these cases shows how important privacy, trademarks, copyrights, contracts and proper clearance of works can be. In the case of Hoang, I believe she has no case and should embrace her age and try marketing it in a different way to increase her roles again. Furthermore it teaches us that the information we place on a public site is not private. In the case of "En Vogue" I'm a little disappointed that the name was not registered sooner with all the members having rights, but this case shows us how important having our business in order before going forward. In the case of  Kanye West, he may have to settle the lawsuit for the use of the sample "get down". I listened to both tracks and can't decide on if it was or wasn't a sample from Pryor. There are laws to protect us all and it's very important that we follow them to avoid lawsuits and arbitration's like these.