Eriq Gardner

The faux controversy over that Sydney Sweeney ad campaign is unofficially this year’s most annoying bit of “news”

How can we tell the difference?

The Legendary–Lionsgate ‘Dune’ Drama After a months-long secret dispute over foreign adaptation rights, the two studios recently reached a settlement in which Legendary forked over a pittance—just $13 million to resolve the claim. Perhap...

I’m revealing exclusively that “Dune: Part 2” was released last year under a significant legal cloud—a huge claim from Lionsgate that it actually held foreign rights. Here’s what happened as well as the fallout. puck.news/inside-legen...

Delaware is quickly turning into the libel tourist destination of choice in the United States. Why? No anti-SLAPP.

Talking about it on Powers That Be podcast… podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

Murdoch’s Trump-Epstein Game Theory The president’s attorneys could seize on the mogul’s advanced age for expedited examination of his dealing with ‘Wall Street Journal’ executives. For their part, the defendants might welcome discovery...

Some analysis on the Trump-Murdoch case puck.news/why-trumps-l...

Trump Dow Jones et al…A sloppy rushed lawsuit over an allegedly sloppy rushed news story t.co/C2KrxXEXF6

Exclusive | Jeffrey Epstein’s Friends Sent Him Bawdy Letters for a 50th Birthday Album. One Was From Donald Trump. The leather-bound book was compiled by Ghislaine Maxwell. The president says the letter ‘is a fake thing.’

Is Donald Trump really going to sue Rupert Murdoch’s paper? So he says… www.wsj.com/politics/tru...

The Silver Lake–Endeavor Deal Cage Match Today a court began considering who would steer the appraisal challenge over the price that the private equity firm paid to take Endeavor private. It’s as messy—and as lucrative—as it sounds, and has ...

My latest is about the mess created by Endeavor’s privatization. Between the privatization announcement and the actual squeeze-out, Endeavor’s stake in WWE and UFC soared, which should have been a good thing but… puck.news/silver-lakes...

Will A.I. be as smart as Swedish journalists? www.nytimes.com/2025/07/11/w...

The Tony Robbins A.I. Power Within A new court case over an A.I.’s celebrity doppelgänger, somewhat hilariously approximating Tony Robbins, may establish precedent for the bursting docket of entertainers looking to protect their flesh-...

A.I. isn’t just training on copyrighted books, movies, and news articles. It’s also ingesting voices, faces, and personalities—and spitting out imitations. And one celebrity is quietly suing. puck.news/tony-robbins...

Automating oral argument The first frontier.

Can you build a robot to argue in front of the Supreme Court? Fascinating experiment by Adam Unikowski at Jenner & Block—with audio! adamunikowsky.substack.com/p/automating...

How long until Diddy's camp seizes upon the fact that he's been convicted on a law nicknamed the "White Slave Traffic Act"—the one that got Jack Johnson and Bob Dylan wrote a song about ("Hurricane")?

"Media organizations might also benefit from taking a more proactive stance. Traditionally focused on defending their right to publish, perhaps it’s time they also vigorously defend the reputations of those who do" puck.news/is-steve-wyn...

Should "60 Minutes" EPs sue for defamation? Now that Paramount has settled with Trump—sans apology or regret—it might behoove "60 Minutes" executive producers to be on the alert for those going too far in accusing them of unprofessional behavior. Just a thought.

We’ll see if the $16 million ransom actually achieves anything

The Des Moines Register also says Trump only dropped it because Iowa's anti-SLAPP law kicks in today

Quite a day for litigation funder Burford as NY judge orders Argentina to hand over controlling stake in previously nationalized energy company. And Senate parliamentarian rules litigation funder tax in reconciliation bill must be struck under Byrd rule.

These IP fashion cases are getting, um, awkward. From Lululemon v. Cosco...

Pretty big news in the entertainment realm as the Supreme Court agrees to hear Cox v Sony. This case has been flying under the radar despite the literal billions at stake—and the future of tech liability for alleged copyright (maybe more) sins.

I know some Hollywood policy folks who are going to be disappointed by this development. Tillis was very respected on IP and tax policy.

Thoughtful piece

Fascinating how the judges are having a conversation with each other. This one’s got nuance. A.I. copyright rulings coming fast and furious now. They will be more soon, not all in favor of A.I., mark my words. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Meta Beats Copyright Suit From Authors Over AI Training on Books Meta Platforms Inc. escaped a first-of-its-kind copyright lawsuit from a group of authors who alleged the tech giant hoovered up millions of copyrighted books without permission to train its generativ...

A.I. copyright rulings coming fast and furious now. They will be more soon, not all in favor of A.I., mark my words. news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/m...

Is anyone actually reading the ruling because the conclusion is there was NO collusive agreement between NFL teams.

Not everyone is going to like this part...

Bartz

🚨BREAKING: Federal judge concludes that using copyrighted works to train generative A.I. is transformative and ultimately a fair use. (Nevertheless, Anthropic can’t beat the lawsuit because it pirated books for another purpose too.) First of kind ruling. www.documentcloud.org/documents/25...

Wisconsin Sues Miami Over Transfer as College Sports Turns Pro The University of Wisconsin suing the University of Miami over a student transferring--the student is a top football player--is a sign of the times.

May the best school(‘s lawyers) win www.sportico.com/law/analysis...

Welcome

The Real Reason Bob Iger Declared War on A.I. Disney is racing to keep its fight with Midjourney inside the judicial system and out of the political swamp. Insiders insist the endgame isn’t a licensing deal, but actually to compel A.I. companies ...

Disney's got an eye on what the Trump Administration is doing on the A.I. front—and the lawsuit against Midjourney is just the beginning. puck.news/why-disney-a...