Welcome to another edition of The Wrestling Post. In this post, we take a look at Hulk Hogan’s ongoing battle with Gawker, the WWE donates money to head trauma research and a Court denies a WWE Motion to Dismiss in a Copyright Infringement lawsuit.
Hogan versus Gawker continues
Hulk Hogan is seeking to eliminate all semblance of his sex tape from the internet according to TMZ. The professional wrestler is embroiled in a lawsuit with the Gawker web site over the sex tape which Gawker had posted on its site.
Hogan successfully filed a temporary restraining order requiring that Gawker take down the video and the accompanying post describing Hogan’s tape. Gawker took down the video but left the post describing the video citing the Judge’s decision to grant the TRO as “unconstitutional.” Gawker also left on its site links to other web sites where one could obtain the video.
Hogan’s lawyers have filed a Motion an Order to Show Cause to determine why Gawker should not be held in contempt of Court for disobeying an Order from the Court. On the other hand, Gawker has filed a Motion for Stay of Hogan’s Temporary Injunction. In its briefing, it cites a list of reasons why the Judge’s granting of the TRO was incorrect. Two of the more interesting arguments is that the state court judge was “collaterally estopped” from its ruling as Hogan’s TRO was already ruled on in Federal Court in October. In addition, Gawker argues that the state court judge admitted (which she did) that she did not look at the video or plan to do so, yet ruled on the content.
Payout Take: This lawsuit will be interesting from the perspective of whether Hogan can rid the internet of the offensive tape. Gawker’s stance on the state ordered TRO is noteworthy considering that Hogan’s legal strategy may have doomed him (i.e., he filed his lawsuit in federal court first and then voluntarily dismissed the case but not before that Court ruled on this same injunction.) We will see how this legal case plays out to see whether a Court will overturn the injunction based on the prior ruling or whether the issue is moot due to the ruling in the present forum.
WWE donates $1.2 million to head trauma research
USA Today reports that the WWE has donated $1.2 million to head trauma research.
Via USA Today:
World Wrestling Entertainment, known for past stars such as Hulk Hogan and current champ John Cena, says it is making a gift of $1.2 million over three years to further research aimed at developing a treatment for Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. The brain disease, associated with repeated concussions, has come under scrutiny amid concussion-related lawsuits by more than 4,000 former NFL players against the league. CTE has been linked to depression and dementia.
The donation is being made to the Sports Legacy Institute in Boston, a non profit run by former WWE Wrestler and one time Tough Enough competitor Christopher Nowinski. Nowinski, a Harvard graduate, whose wrestling career was cut short due to a concussion.
Payout Take: The donation is a step in the right direction in the continued evolution of the the WWE that recognizes its newfound duties as a publicly traded company and the importance of corporate social responsibility. While many skeptics may think that the donation is “after the fact” for many wrestlers and/or preventative PR in light of the NFL concussion litigation, it shows that the WWE is taking steps to ensure that it does not make any further mistakes with the treatment of its talent.
WWE’s Motion to Dismiss Copyright Lawsuit Denied
The Hollywood Report reports that a Texas music composer has won an initial round in the legal battle over the rights to entrance music he composed for wrestlers. While Papa Berg, the composer that is suing the WWE, had portions of his lawsuit dismissed, the Court allowed him to proceed with his copyright infringement lawsuit. The WWE attempted to dismiss the lawsuit in its entirety or in the alternative, have the lawsuit moved to Connecticut (the WWE’s headquarters).
The bulk of the ruling by the Texas Court was based on jurisdictional issues, the lawsuit alleging that the WWE “misappropriated his songs, caused royalties to be misdirected and interfered with a video game deal.” In the latter claim, Berg did not discover that the WWE had the rights to his songs until video game maker (pre-Bankruptcy) THQ contacted him about the right to use a song in one of its WWE video games.
Notably, for those old enough to recall the AWA and NWA, Berg composed the Freebirds’ “Badstreet USA” entrance song and Sting’s “A Man Called Sting”
Payout Take: Although the issue at hand was a civil procedure question concerning jurisdiction, once the lawsuit gets to the merits of whether or not the WWE infringed Berg’s copyright will it get interesting.
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