In Episode 3 of 'Weekly Docket,' join Phil Silberman and Austin Black as they dissect Alec Baldwin's legal battle, 50 Cent's concert mishap, and the controversy over an AI George Carlin. They'll also answer questions on copyrightable poses, wrongful termination in Texas, and guardianship for teens, closing with a critique on Congress's scrutiny of tech CEOs for social media safety. Dive into these heated legal discussions for insights and advice.
In Episode 3 of 'Weekly Docket,' join Phil Silberman and Austin Black as they dissect Alec Baldwin's legal battle, 50 Cent's concert mishap, and the controversy over an AI George Carlin. They'll also answer questions on copyrightable poses, wrongful termination in Texas, and guardianship for teens, closing with a critique on Congress's scrutiny of tech CEOs for social media safety. Dive into these heated legal discussions for insights and advice.
Hello, welcome to the Weekly Docket podcast. Today is February 1st, 2024. My name is Phil Silverman. I'm Yourman Law Firm and I've got my cohost with me, Austin Black, who's a lawyer in our Dallas office. Hello, Austin.
Austin Black:Hi.
Track 1:resounding better today?
austin-black_2_02-01-2024_123550:Yeah, I had Covid last week. I'm feeling a lot better now. Still a little bit getting over that but a lot better.
Track 1:It's good to have you with almost full health. What is on our docket today?
austin-black_2_02-01-2024_123550:we're going to go over our legal news section and we're specifically gonna be talking about a lot of things that some of our precious celebrities are going through right now. Poor Alec Baldwin, 50 cent and a few others. then we're going to. legal questions including is striking a pose, copyrightable,
Track 1:Okay, so it's safe to say that this is basically our celebrity edition episode three. Is that correct?
austin-black_2_02-01-2024_123550:exactly.
Track 1:All right so Alec Baldwin in 2021 2021 I. And they allegedly say, okay, guts Cold Gun, and he's doing his scene and he shoots somebody. Not on purpose, he's an actor. and horrifically the cinematographer dies of a fatal bullet wound. And, terrible thing, but the prosecutor in New Mexico charges him with involuntary manslaughter. When that first came out, I was like, terrible accident. I don't know all the facts, but gosh, you're charging him with a pretty serious crime. and Alec Baldwin recently has pled not guilty to involuntary manslaughter. is this the right charge? Is this a publicity stunt by the prosecutor or what?
austin-black_2_02-01-2024_123550:I'm honestly not sure. I would. they're not gonna release the footage of that rust hasn't been released for one. That movie isn't out yet.
Track 1:the guy's an actor. you hand him a gun, he's doing his thing. Clearly he doesn't really intend to shoot anybody. Now I know that it's involuntary, I, I don't think. This gets there, but let's take a look at our elements of involuntary manslaughter in the state of New Mexico.
austin-black_2_02-01-2024_123550:So in New Mexico, the standard for involuntary manslaughter is that you have to act in a reckless manner, which may cause the death of another person.
Track 1:so our listeners have an example if you're gonna go drive a car and you blindfold yourself and you have a six pack and you just start driving the car down the road, you kill someone. That's obviously involuntary manslaughter.
austin-black_2_02-01-2024_123550:That's the classic example of it. Yep.
Track 1:Okay, You give him a gun. What is he supposed to do? every time someone gives you a gun, are you supposed to shoot it in the ground? Or?
austin-black_2_02-01-2024_123550:I don't know. As you were saying, there's a lot of, he said, she said right about whether he was told the gun was cold or not. If he was told that the gun was cold that there was nothing wrong with it, But.
Track 1:Well, I.
austin-black_2_02-01-2024_123550:Yeah. Yeah.
Track 1:Western and I want to know if every time Clint Eastwood like that, one of my favorite westerns is Unforn, Clint Eastwood, William Money. And in that final scene, he points the, the gun at the sheriff and. The sheriff says, I didn't deserve this, was I was building a house. And Clint Eastwood says, deserve ain't got nothing to do, and he shoots it. So did Clint Eastwood test that shotgun in the movie? Five times before he, he shot him on scene and with a pretend gun, In New Mexico, fourth degree felony punishable by 18 months in prison, and a$5,000 fine. I don't think Alec Baldwin is worried about the five grand, but he certainly doesn't want to get 18 months in prison. And to me, someone who doesn't know all the facts, I think he's getting a raw deal. It's a tragedy for certain. I don't wish harm upon anybody that got shot on set, but I don't think we need to, exacerbate the matter by putting people in prison. let's move on Who's our.
austin-black_2_02-01-2024_123550:50 cent.
Track 1:here's what I wanna know. Why is it singular scent and not plural scent? Why is it not 50 cents?
austin-black_2_02-01-2024_123550:I don't know. It's a few cents short of a dollar.
Track 1:It's probably better brand, probably cooler, probably fit the vernacular better. So 50 cent is on his last tour and he's playing in LA at some arena, And he gets so frustrated that the mic doesn't work. He just chucks the mic o off stage and hits.
austin-black_2_02-01-2024_123550:Yeah.
Track 1:And the lady he hits in the head, she's bleeding from her forehead. She later goes to the hospital, says she has a concussion and she has these long lasting symptoms and she sues 50 cent. for negligence in the state of California. So what do you think? 50 cent negligent or not negligent.
austin-black_2_02-01-2024_123550:Absolutely negligent. The average microphone weighs about three and a half pounds, so this is not as light as people would think it is from looking at it on the stage if you haven't held one I. Yeah, so negligence is a tort. First there needs to be a duty that exists from one person to another. There needs to be a breach of that duty. The action of the person who breached it needs to directly cause damages of the other person. Those are the elements there.
Track 1:Take one by.
austin-black_2_02-01-2024_123550:Yes. Yes. I'm gonna say yes he did. Yeah, exactly.
Track 1:Although, 50 cents argument was she was in a restricted zone where she wasn't supposed to be. So maybe that's the microphone throwing zone. And she was in the line of fire and she stepped into that zone
austin-black_2_02-01-2024_123550:I don't buy that. I don't buy
Track 1:Okay. All right. Duty. So 50 has a duty. The his did breach duty by throwing the mic. Yes, he Yes.
austin-black_2_02-01-2024_123550:duty in my opinion.
Track 1:All, we've got a clear breach of the duty causation. It's a three and a half pound mic. Chuck in the forehead. Probably the cause of her forehead, laceration, probably the cause of a concussion. What are her damages?
austin-black_2_02-01-2024_123550:She's asking for lost wages, hospital bills, and then emotional distress and probably other things too.
Track 1:Hopefully she's okay. We don't know the extent of damages concussions can be serious. I. Let's talk about the difference between intentional though. The plaintiff also in the article said that right. That's no longer negligence is supposed to be this unintentional thing. I'm just pointing out that the plaintiff's attorney might need to amend his petition with a battery. I. California. But if he intentionally did it, it should be civil battery. Or in the alternative, his lawyers plead out both sides mouth in the alternative negligence.
austin-black_2_02-01-2024_123550:Sure.
Track 1:I don't think the jury's gonna care. You know how he did it. That's just how.
austin-black_2_02-01-2024_123550:probably not.
Track 1:Who's our next celebrity We're gonna talk about
austin-black_2_02-01-2024_123550:George Carlin,
Track 1:how is George Carlin different from our other two celebrities? In a very significant way.
austin-black_2_02-01-2024_123550:well, let's see. So he's not a, he's not a rapper.
Track 1:Yeah.
austin-black_2_02-01-2024_123550:he's, he is not an actor Really. He's a comedian. Oh. And he is dead. He's
Track 1:Yes.
austin-black_2_02-01-2024_123550:Yeah.
Track 1:you good? That's why
austin-black_2_02-01-2024_123550:Yeah.
Track 1:one,
austin-black_2_02-01-2024_123550:Yeah.
Track 1:My favorite piece of work that George Carlin did was Thomas the Tank Engine, and I've had four kids and everyone needs to know that George Carlin wasn't just a raunchy comedian, but he did great work. The narrator in Thomas the Tank Engine. If you haven't seen it, go watch an episode. It's amazing.
austin-black_2_02-01-2024_123550:I will put it on my list.
Track 1:George Carlin's estate, because we've established that he dead these podcasters they decide it, have AI generate a George standup. Based on his body of work. So they find all these, the standup episodes loaded into ai AI, puts out this voice and image likeness that sounds like George Carlin and George Carlin's up there doing standup. I listen a little bit, some of it was pretty funny. He like, oh, I'm sorry, not going on, but I've a really good excuse. I've been. George's family. The podcasters for copyright infringement.
austin-black_2_02-01-2024_123550:Yeah.
Track 1:we're back into the realm of all these AI cases Sarah Silverman sued that wrote the book. I think she sued chat, GPT or whichever AI company saying, Hey, the AI bot. Synthesized all my material, took my book, re regurgitated it, violated my copyright. There's a New York Times case currently pending where the Times is saying AI is taking all of the times articles and regurgitating that and putting it out there and the estate. Hey, this is so ghoulish and so far inappropriate that you've taken the body of our of George Carlin's work, this great comedian, and you've infringed upon it and you violated the copyright. If I create an original work, I write an article, I do standup comedy, I write a book. This is my original protected creative work. And AI comes along and it gets uploaded. And then a, now AI's defense is, I'm not violating copyright. I'm u I'm using it as a fair use and I'm creating my own sort of creative.
austin-black_2_02-01-2024_123550:sure.
Track 1:as lawyers, by the way, we, we take other lawyers' works. I might read a scholarly article that's clearly copyrighted by another lawyer. I might read that article, read another article, do some additional research, and then create my own individual work that's not copyright infringement. That's what AI's defense is. on the face of it, it sounds like a really good defense. I think the Supreme Court or the legislature is gonna have to step in here. because this is unprecedented, what's going on, we've never had this happen before. They're gonna have to step in here and make new law. alright, let's answer some legal questions. First question we have today is wrongful termination. In Texas, wrongful termination is not a thing.
austin-black_2_02-01-2024_123550:No,
Track 1:we have what's called an employment at will state. Now, Austin, you work for me. I love you. But if one day I decide I don't like you anymore I just don't want you to work for me, I can say, Austin, you're terminated. Its employment at will.
austin-black_2_02-01-2024_123550:You do that and I will submit a potential new client request saying I was wrongfully terminated from the Silverman Law Firm for a free consult.
Track 1:Have a. You do have things in Texas and across the country you have a violation of a statute or an illegal termination for, for example, you can't terminate someone because of, because of their race, their religion their di age disability
austin-black_2_02-01-2024_123550:Yeah.
Track 1:are clearly. CO that are protected and that is a type of, I won't call it a wrongful termination, I just call it a violation of a statute.
austin-black_2_02-01-2024_123550:Yeah.
Track 1:Now, the all, there is an exception where you can, in a sense, be wrongfully terminated, but it's very rare
austin-black_2_02-01-2024_123550:Yeah.
Track 1:if you have an employment contract and it's a term contract. Year or two years promises you some sum of money and maybe in that contract says you can only be fired for and your employer then terminates you. That is a wrongful termination, but really it's just a breach of contract.
austin-black_2_02-01-2024_123550:Yeah,
Track 1:So there is that, but that doesn't happen very often. so calls on violating.
austin-black_2_02-01-2024_123550:So people will come to us and they have a judgment against them, but they have absolutely nothing, they ask us what they can do. Yeah.
Track 1:get a bunch of broke people calling us
austin-black_2_02-01-2024_123550:Yes. not call'em broke. Let's not call'em broke. Just
Track 1:financially, challenge people
austin-black_2_02-01-2024_123550:Okay.
Track 1:that, that don't. Two to rub together.
austin-black_2_02-01-2024_123550:Or 50 cents.
Track 1:Or 50 And they've been, they've already got a judgment and they're calling us. Good news. The state of Texas was founded by debtors and criminals, so we have some of the most debtor friendly. In Texas, here are the major one that you have. You can have as big of home as Homestead property as you possibly can afford. You could have your floors and your counters made out of solid gold and millions and millions of dollars of homestead improvement. And we will never let creditors get to. A. You can also have vehicles for as many drivers in the house with a driver's license. You can have a vehicle and the vehicles can be nice. It can be a Bentley, You can have. So you can have all this stuff that the creditors are never gonna get, and your creditors are just gonna be outta luck. So what do we tell those people when they call in? Usually if the person doesn't have anything and he is never gonna have anything, we just tell him, Hey, you may not wanna do anything if they've been sued. We will say, maybe let's put up a little bit of a fight. Let's not make it super easy. There's no, one day you may hit the lottery or may start a great business, or you may get back on your feet. So let's not just give them a judgment. Let's put up a little bit of, a little bit of fight.
austin-black_2_02-01-2024_123550:Sure.
Track 1:But sometimes you've got some people that are, in their seventies and they don't have anything and it a situation where.
austin-black_2_02-01-2024_123550:It is. It's throwing good money after bad, and it's just not worth it.
Track 1:Yeah, exactly. Now there, there are some limited ways in Texas, one of the few ways that you can collect. Primarily the debtor has to. Real estate, that's not your homestead property, like investment property. That's a good way to, you can sell that, get money for it, or the debtor has to have some money sitting in a bank account.
austin-black_2_02-01-2024_123550:Okay. Yes. Yeah. An influencer was sent a cease and desist letter to delete all of their social media accounts because her poses were allegedly violating copyright that other influencers were doing things with. Two. Now
Track 1:Pose are talking Zoolander poses.
austin-black_2_02-01-2024_123550:So I actually can tell you, They're very generic. The poses that this person was doing were. Exactly the same as every female influencer does on Instagram. They were all the same sort of poses. There is nothing special about this.
Track 1:Can you demonstrate one of the poses for me?
austin-black_2_02-01-2024_123550:I really can't, I would need a much more low cut shirt to do that. And
Track 1:You're not correctly endowed
austin-black_2_02-01-2024_123550:I'm
Track 1:to
austin-black_2_02-01-2024_123550:endowed to do those
Track 1:to generate. So we're, but we're not talking about Blue Steel or Magnum or lati
austin-black_2_02-01-2024_123550:we are not. Definitely
Track 1:or what about The smolder from Jumanji, Dr. Brave Smolder.
austin-black_2_02-01-2024_123550:From Jumanji or from I, I would like to argue that originally came from Shrek too with Prince Charming. But w we, we can have that discussion later.
Track 1:So is copyrightable? If I've got a really unique smolder, can I do, can I? I toold.
austin-black_2_02-01-2024_123550:No, you cannot. It's not unique enough.
Track 1:So we think on the weekly docket, our official opinion is oppose in itself is not so original as to rise to the level of copyright material, moving right along. Guardian, 18-year-old daughter out of control and the guy calls in and he says, my daughter's so outta control. I adult guardian.
austin-black_2_02-01-2024_123550:She's not calling him back. She's smoking marijuanas all that. And he's I need a guardianship.
Track 1:guardianship is mostly for old people with dementia that have lost capacity, not for out of control 18 year olds. But I empathize with this gentleman because I have teenagers. and it would be nice if I could have some type of, they turn 18 and I need to him back in.
austin-black_2_02-01-2024_123550:Sure.
Track 1:Or the guardianship process is not available. All right, now we're coming up to our legal soundbites, our legal faux, our legal confusion, vocab terms or just things we've heard that are funny in our law practice. here's what I wanna know. What does it mean to catch a case?
austin-black_2_02-01-2024_123550:What it means to catch a case is when you have a client who unfortunately is a convicted felon
Track 1:Now. Now this situation, we're doing probates. We do a lot of probate at the law firm, and oftentimes someone is named as executor. it turns out beed felon, many, you could not have been convicted, felon, every time we signed up a probate. And we've got a client that wants to be executor, we always have to ask them, are you a convicted felon? And a lot of times they say, oh, Mr. Silverman, back in 1980 or 90 something, I caught a case and I was not familiar with that term, but apparently it's, the idea is maybe you're just minding your own business and a case catches you. I don't think that's actually working. I don't think you catch a criminal case like you caught covid last week.
austin-black_2_02-01-2024_123550:the same way. It's the same way
Track 1:You, even though you caught the case to none of your own fault, the state of Texas will not let you serve as executor because you are a convicted felon. And the legislature thought it was a sad thing because it turns out that we've passed House Bill 33, which says now. The courts discretion, convicted felons can in fact serve as the executor Felon. So in the court's discretion. This could be a good thing there. There are, maybe that executor who's a convicted felon is also the sole beneficiary. There's no harm that can be done to other people if I'm the probate judge, sure. Bill, you know you messed up in 1985. You're the only beneficiary you wanna steal from yourself. All right. No skin off my back. Done appointed executor.
austin-black_2_02-01-2024_123550:Yeah.
Track 1:there are some situations where if I'm the probate judge, I probably am not gonna give this approval. if you're a five time convicted felon for embezzlement and forgery and check fraud and all of these financial crimes. and you're not the sole beneficiary. You've got other beneficiaries. One of them is the Red Cross, a charity, and the other ones are four other kids. If I want to get reelected as a probate judge, I'm probably not allowing you to serve as an executor. Congress's power of investigation and oversight. Congress used its subpoena power to bring all the big tech guys over to Capitol Hill and give them their annual verbal lashing about how bad their platforms are and how dangerous and harmful they are to society and this. I have kids, I have four kids. I don't let them use social media. I believe it makes them stupid. And it also, they're already teenagers and they're emotionally unstable and volatile. So I don't want them any more emotionally unstable or volatile. So our rule is no social media. so they bring the tech CEOs onto Capitol Hill. They give them the annual verbal lashing, and it was really poignant. Politicians are great at speaking and driving the PO point home, and Lindsey Graham, gets up there and says, you've got blood on your hands. This other guy, Josh Holly, he gave, read him the riot act and demanded an apology. I'm just gonna say I'm tired of these politicians getting up there and acting holier than thou, and given these CEOs, this verbal lashing, and the reason I'm tired of it is because the politicians actually have the power to fix it. you're Congress. You make the law. If you wanna fix it, you can.
austin-black_2_02-01-2024_123550:Yeah,
Track 1:I'm tired of, I'm tired of the hypocrisy in.
austin-black_2_02-01-2024_123550:Yeah. And they like to, and I agree in most aspects,
Track 1:Lindsey Graham he got up there and you there, blood on your hands and all that. And he took, I mean his campaign, he took money from all the big tech. And now he got at one point, at the end of 2023, he got up there and he was like I've instructed my staff to go back and look at all the money that I've received from these big tech companies, and I'm giving it all back. It's you already took the money. You already. Yeah, now you can just conveniently give it, give it back from your pot of money. I thought that was the height of hypocrisy. Now, Josh Hawley I dunno, Josh Hawley I actually, love the policies on reigning in big tech.
austin-black_2_02-01-2024_123550:Sure.
Track 1:He didn't do anything quite as overt as take the campaign money from what I've heard. But The guardian did point out that, you've invested, your retirement. It's not, I dunno, it was like tens of thousands of dollars. We're not talking about a ton of money here, but he was invested in the Vanguard Growth Fund and in full disclosure, I.
austin-black_2_02-01-2024_123550:I am too. Yeah
Track 1:but they were like, they see, and he's a hypocrite and he invested in the Vanguard Growth Fund and that's got the Magnificent seven in it. the Guardian if you're a liberal, progressive newspaper and that's how you're trying to get the politician I think that's a little tenuous,
austin-black_2_02-01-2024_123550:a little bit of
Track 1:but. If you're going if you're the Republican senator for Missouri and you're going to make it your platform and your passion derail against big tech, you probably need to pay a little closer attention to what you're investing in. I'm tired of all the grandstanding. I'm tired of the politicians. There's. C, it's section two, the CD, which is the Communications Decency Act. It was passed in 1996, and it was really designed to help the internet grow, but it's pretty much anybody that's got a platform or a website, like a Google search engine or a social media platform is anything that gets published on there. It's not on you. It's not on Google. It's not on TikTok. It's not on.
austin-black_2_02-01-2024_123550:Yeah.
Track 1:The, on the publisher, the individual creator like me, like Philman, like Austin Black. That was our opinion. So
austin-black_2_02-01-2024_123550:Sure.
Track 1:all the terrible stuff that's happening to these children were these challenge acts and dying, or how pedophiles are having access to the kids. Big tech is hiding behind Section two 30 of the CDA and Congress has the power to change it, but they're not doing it probably because Big Tech is lining their political pockets and they just wanna get up there and grandstand and they don't wanna do anything about it. I'm, and I'm tired of it. If you wanna do something about it, you need to reign in section 230 Of this, of the CDA of the Communications Decency Act. You got the power to. just to bring this home for our listeners. The Wall Street Journal, the newspaper can't have an editorial piece in their paper And disclaim all liability as a publisher. They, now, the editorial piece can, it can have opinions about Trump or Biden or whatever, and the Wall Street Journal may have a little footnote that says, these opinions are not the opinions of the Wall Street Journal, They're not gonna let a guest editorial author come on and espouse. Terrible, challenge or murderous threats because the Wall Street Journal as a newspaper has liability. Why does big tech get complete immunity? And that what I'm saying is this has to stop,
austin-black_2_02-01-2024_123550:Absolutely. Absolutely. Know why they get immunity lobbyists. Are why they
Track 1:Yeah. They just, big tech has a lot more money and on, on that note, that brings our show to a close. So please, follow us, subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts. Leave us reviews for better or worse. We appreciate all the commentary. And thank you to Mr. Black for being my cohost. And this is Phil Silverman signing off for the Silverman Law Firm.