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Articles by Gregory A. Piccionelli

opinion

Raising Capital: New SEC Rules May Be a Crowdfunding Game Changer

On Wednesday, March 25, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced its unanimous approval of the final rules for Title IV of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, also known as the “JOBS Act.”

Gregory A. Piccionelli ·
opinion

Legal Reality: Immoral, Scandalous Trademarks

Competition in the adult entertainment industry is intense. The widespread availability of free adult materials online, rampant Internet piracy and very low barriers of entry for new competition all combine to make profitability more difficult than ever before.

Gregory A. Piccionelli ·
opinion

Legal Reality: Net Neutrality Turnaround

The net neutrality war is still far from over despite the Federal Communications Commission’s historic vote on Feb. 26 that approved a policy for an open Internet. Earlier last month, on Feb. 4, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler announced new proposed regulations directed to reinstate net neutrality under the FCC’s authority to regulate telecommunications companies like Verizon, Comcast and AT&T as public utilities.

Gregory A. Piccionelli ·
opinion

Registering Your Intellectual Property

Savvy intellectual property owners understand that effective protection and enforcement of their intellectual property requires that they register their copyrights and trademarks.

Gregory A. Piccionelli ·
opinion

Legal Reality: Texas Kickstarts New Crowdfunding Era

Well, it’s the beginning of 2015 and the Securities and Exchange Commission still has not finalized long-awaited federal crowdfunding rules.

Gregory A. Piccionelli ·
opinion

Legal Reality: Get Off Your Butt and Email the FCC Now

I am beginning this month’s article with what I hope will be an unambiguous call to action for everyone in the greater online adult entertainment community to join the battle to restore net neutrality.

Gregory A. Piccionelli ·
opinion

Legal Reality: DMCA Takedown Notices, Requirements

Recently I have received a lot of requests from our readers regarding the requirements for a proper DMCA takedown notice. For those not familiar with a DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) takedown notice, it is a communication that is sent to an online service provider (OSP) by a party that owns or controls the copyright in a work that the party believes is being infringed on a website or via an online service controlled by the service provider.

Gregory A. Piccionelli ·
opinion

Legal Reality: Should You Have a Prenuptial Agreement?

Summertime has passed, and like every summer, the weather was beautiful and a whole lot of people got married. That’s a good thing, for as a friend of mine once told me, “Marriage is a sacred institution. It’s something a man only does ... two or three times in his life!”

Gregory A. Piccionelli ·
opinion

Legal Reality: Sound Music Deals

Music is a big part of just about every kind of entertainment. It is, for example, an integral component of most motion picture productions from mega-budget movies to micro-budget indie films. Even a relatively large segment of adult videos include music. Online, the use of music is exploding all over the web.

Gregory A. Piccionelli ·
opinion

Legal Reality: SAVE — Will It Be Law?

The 113th U.S. Congress has been frequently called the “Do-Nothing Congress.” By many accounts, that label is well-deserved. The legislative paralysis that has set in due to the intense partisan bickering that has characterized the environment on Capital Hill for years has placed current session of Congress on track to pass a historically low number of new laws of substance.

Gregory A. Piccionelli ·
opinion

Legal Reality: Net Neutrality Update

Earlier this year, in my article entitled “Warning! Net Neutrality Terminated! This Is Not A Test,“ I discussed how a recent federal court ruling has set the stage for potentially unprecedented regulatory changes that might well spell the end of the Internet as we know it. Specifically, the article focused on the ruling in Verizon vs. Federal Communications Commission that effectively ended net neutrality.

Gregory A. Piccionelli ·
opinion

Legal Reality: Discussing Intangibles

We live in an age of unprecedented consumer access to a nearly limitless amount of content. As a result, sellers of goods and services have been challenged like never before to find ways to reach new customers amid the relentless deluge of information. And as the competition for eyes and ears has intensified, so has the importance of effective branding and brand building.

Gregory A. Piccionelli ·
opinion

Legal Reality: Cliff Notes on 2257

Unlike producers of nonsexual content, adult content producers must comply with a complex and burdensome set of federal criminal regulations known as the 2257 regulations.

Gregory A. Piccionelli ·
opinion

Rights From Performers: Minor Role, Big Impact

A recent federal appeals court ruling has underscored, once again, why it is so important for content producers to properly acquire intellectual property rights from persons providing creative contributions to their content. In Garcia vs. Google Inc., No. 12-57308, an actress successfully obtained a court order forcing the takedown of a motion picture from YouTube even though she did not own the film’s copyright and was only briefly depicted in the work.

Gregory A. Piccionelli ·
opinion

Legal Reality: Picking an Identity

Obtaining a desired domain name is a critical part of modern commerce. Unfortunately, all too often a company or a person will register a domain name and use it without sufficient consideration of whether doing so will infringe another’s trademark or service mark. This can be a very costly mistake.

Gregory A. Piccionelli ·
opinion

Legal Reality: Warning! Net Neutrality is Terminated — This is Not a Test

On Jan. 14, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit handed down a ruling of monumental importance. In its long awaited decision in the case of Verizon vs. Federal Communications Commission the court effectively ended what has come to be known as “net neutrality.”

Gregory A. Piccionelli ·
opinion

Legal Reality: Trademark Basics

We live in the age of information. It is an extraordinary time, unlike all others, where literally billions of people have access to an unprecedented amount and scope of content.

Gregory A. Piccionelli ·
opinion

Legal Reality: More Pooling for Porn

Last month I reported what some very good news regarding new federal securities regulations that went into effect in September that conditionally allow start-ups and small businesses to use Internet advertising and other mass marketing means to raise investment capital for businesses.

Gregory A. Piccionelli ·
opinion

Crowdfunding: Pooling for Porn

On Sept. 23, new securities regulations went into effect allowing start-ups and small businesses to use Internet advertising and other mass marketing means raise investment capital for business.

Gregory A. Piccionelli ·
opinion

Nailing the ‘Trolls’

It seems like there is nothing that Republicans and Democrats in Washington D.C. agree on these days. The partisan chasm dividing the parties has practically petrified the lawmaking process in Congress. But amid all the rancor and differences, there is one issue that has not only inspired bipartisan agreement, but has surprisingly motivated both parties to actually cooperate with each other. Even more surprising, is the fact that many Democrats, including the president, and many Republicans are on the same side of this issue with ... brace yourself ... most adult entertainment companies. What could possibly bring together bitter partisan foes and, of all things, the adult entertainment industry? The answer is that most amazing of bedfellow makers, the “patent troll.”

Gregory A. Piccionelli ·
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