Anyone who has worked in reality TV knows that much behind-the-scenes work can be involved in creating drama and comedy that are lacking in the real lives of reality TV show participants. I\u2019ve represented both reality show producers and reality TV stars, and can say there\u2019s much content in reality shows that is fictitious — or at least constitutes a form of induced reality. For example, participants (in other words, characters) are prodded into being villains or buffoons. They are tricked and trapped, all in the name of good entertainment.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A&E\u2019s hit cable TV show \u201cStorage Wars\u201d \u2013- which revolves around buyers of storage lockers who hope to find the buried treasure of valuables inside the lockers — has been accused of being fraught with dishonesty and manipulation by various kinds of deceitful behavior, including planting valuables in the lockers. The accuser: David Hester, a key participant in the show who is a longtime buyer of storage lockers. The court papers, filed by his attorneys in December 2012 in California State Court against A&E and others, claim that \u201cA&E regularly plants valuable items of memorabilia\u201d. Further, Mr. Hester claims that the producer \u201calso manipulates the outcome of certain auctions by paying for storage units on behalf of the weaker cast members who lack both the skill and financial wherewithal to place winning bid<\/p>\n
The parties are at war over many claims, including a breach of contract, an allegation that the \u201csalting and staging\u201d of false material violates the federal Communications Act of 1934, wrongful termination, and trademark issues. However the issue that\u2019s attracted the most attention is the \u201cunfair business practices\u201d claim.<\/p>\n
The business and legal context of these shows is one of appearance over reality. Many reality show participants will sell their souls for TV exposure, and they are perfectly willing to sign anything in order to have a chance for fame. Many participants feel differently after the shows are aired, but of course it seemed like a good idea at the time. The contracts offered to participants are very aggressive in favor of the producers — who enjoy enormous leverage — and contain terms such as long duration, loss of merchandising rights (for example, licensed products bearing the participant\u2019s name and likeness can be sold), no approval rights, no right to sue for defamation, low royalties from endeavors such as merchandising, and high (even seven figure) penalties for the participant (sometimes their relatives, too!) for disclosing plot elements before the first showing<\/p>\n
The Hollywood Reporter<\/em> wrote that A&E counters with the allegation that Mr. Hester \u201cwas unhappy with how contract negotiations were going, so he concocted a \u2018tabloid-worthy drama\u2019 filled with \u2018inconsistencies in his exaggerated self-portrait.\u2019\u201d http:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/thr-esq\/a-e-responds-allegation-storage-416006<\/a><\/p>\n The case is taking fascinating twists and turns, including whether or not the First Amendment protects A&E from an injunction being entered to prevent airing of the show.<\/p>\n So, is a reality show that doesn\u2019t exactly depict reality the way it would be \u201cin nature\u201d if those the producers and camera crews weren\u2019t present constitute an unfair business practice? Or is reality TV really just entertainment (true or false) that we should watch and enjoy for being just the way it is \u2013 or maybe only as it seems to be?<\/p>\n In February 2015, our colleague and friend, partner Mark Fischer, passed away. We have made his blog posts available in honor of both his nuanced and wide-ranging knowledge of intellectual property, new media and entertainment law and of his entertaining style. Please read our tribute to Mark<\/u><\/a> in the firm’s <\/em>Alumni Spotlight publication and his obituary<\/u><\/a> in the <\/em>Boston Globe.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Anyone who has worked in reality TV knows that much behind-the-scenes work can be involved in creating drama and comedy that are lacking in the real lives of reality TV show participants. I\u2019ve represented both reality show producers and reality TV stars, and can say there\u2019s much content in reality shows that is fictitious — … <\/p>\n Continue reading “Reality Was Never Like This: “Storage Wars””<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":105,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[92,13,5,91,90,89,22,36,93],"ppma_author":[251],"class_list":["post-38","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-ae","tag-actors","tag-mark-fischer","tag-reality-tv","tag-storage-wars","tag-talent","tag-television","tag-tv","tag-unfair-business-practice"],"authors":[{"term_id":251,"user_id":105,"is_guest":0,"slug":"mafischer","display_name":"Mark A. Fischer","avatar_url":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/newmedialaw\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2014\/08\/fischermark-125x150.jpg","author_category":"","last_name":"Fischer","first_name":"Mark A.","job_title":"","user_url":"http:\/\/www.duanemorris.com\/attorneys\/markafischer.html","description":"Read Mark's bio.<\/a>"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/newmedialaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/newmedialaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/newmedialaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/newmedialaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/105"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/newmedialaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/newmedialaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/newmedialaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/newmedialaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/newmedialaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/newmedialaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=38"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}