Aaron J. Moss

Moss leads Greenberg Glusker’s litigation department with a focus on entertainment-related IP matters. In 2020 he served as president of the Los Angeles Copyright Society. He’s long been a presence in the legal blogging world, first with one called Law Law Land and currently with his Copyright Lately offering.

“This one arose from the pandemic, when I found myself with free time because there were no concerts to go to,” Moss said. “I do like the creative outlet.” In early April he was commenting at length about the U.S. Supreme Court’s Google LLC v. Oracle America Inc. decision in Google’s favor on fair use grounds.

Among other things, he opined, “The case is also likely to result in more summary judgment motions decided on fair use grounds in cases where the underlying facts aren’t materially disputed.” But, “While opportunistic litigants will no doubt cite some of the more sweeping language in the Court’s opinion in favor of fair use in any number of different contexts, my sense is that future courts will read it consistently with the narrow set of facts in which the case was actually presented.”

Moss said that although he likes blogging, he’s hoping for a return to real life. “I hope we get back to normal soon—maybe by summer. If we’ve learned anything, it’s that we don’t have as much control as we think.”

In 2020 Moss successfully opposed an application for a temporary restraining order to block client Discovery Channel from broadcasting “The Lost Lincoln,” a documentary about a previously undiscovered photograph of the 16th president, taken after he was shot in 1865. Spolar v. Discovery Communications LLC, 2:20-cv-08837 (C.D. Cal., filed Sept. 25, 2020).

The complaint alleged that the show divulged trade secrets regarding processes used to authenticate the photograph. Moss’ winning argument was that enjoining the documentary would be an unconstitutional prior restraint in violation of the First Amendment.

“We got the ruling in our favor on a Friday and the show aired on Sunday, 48 hours later,” Moss said. “Then the plaintiff dropped the case against my client.”

In another case, he represents Rian Johnson, the director of “Star Wars: Episode VIII-The Last Jedi” in a dispute with his former talent agent. The agent claimed he was owed commissions in connection with the movie, over Johnson’s defense that he had played no role in procuring the work and his services were terminated well before the deal was negotiated. Dreyfuss v. Johnson, BC614146 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed March 18, 2016).

Moss won a ruling in Johnson’s favor from the California Labor Commission and, in December 2020, a Superior Court judge sustained Johnson’s demurrer on the ground that newly-added claims were time barred.

“If the plaintiff was correct, this was going to be large, large dollars,” Moss said. “But there was no contract, express or implied, after he was terminated. And I’m a big Star Wars fan.”

— John Roemer