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Prince Sues Fans; College Athletes Seek to Unionize; CNN.com to Live-Stream State of the Union; Super Bowl Media Day; Apple Drops; Pete Seeger Dies

Aired January 28, 2014 - 15:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: So, he really doesn't tour that often, but a legion of fans, of Prince fans, can still enjoy him in smaller speakeasy venues just about any time they want.

So, here's the rub, though. If you received a link to a concert like the one we just played for you, then you share it with your friends, you could be in big trouble with Prince.

He is suing 22 people for copyright infringement and bootlegging. Some of the people being sued are fans who simply shared links of his concerts, online.

So, legally speaking, is it a good move or a bad move? Is he shooting himself in the foot? What's going on there?

Legal analyst Sunny Hostin is here, so --

SUNNY HOSTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: I want you to sing, because you were just singing at the break.

LEMON: You don't have to be beautiful.

HOSTIN: You're good.

LEMON: No, that's all right -- to turn me on.

So, I hope we don't have to pay for that. Whoops!

So, what do you think? Is he smart by doing this? Because we, as an organization, CNN protects its images. All of our images can't go out and just be streamed everywhere.

So what about for him?

HOSTIN: It's never a good look when you're suing your own fans, but I think in this case, it makes a lot of sense, because all of this really is protected by copyright law.

We're talking about the lyrics, the musical composition, the copyright of the performance, and so he does have a right to protect his brand, to protect who he is.

LEMON: But it's hard to do, right? Because he's tried before and failed.

HOSTIN: He has failed and it is hard to do, but I think he's on pretty firm legal footing.

Let's face it, if you take your little video and use it for your own personal use and you sing to yourself in the shower while watching it, that's fine.

But if you're downloading it and sharing it with friends, I think that's different. I think his fans will understand that he really needs to get paid and compensated for his work, and it needs to be protected.

He's not going to get $22 million from his fans, but --

LEMON: It's interesting because people now think they own everything just because they have this thing that they can shoot video and pictures and they don't.

It's probably better.

HOSTIN: I think he's sending a message. Listen, pay for my music. Don't steal from me.

LEMON: Another potential legal can of worms here is opening up at Northwestern. Football players there are trying to unionize, Sunny.

The National College Players Association has filed a petition on behalf of the athletes with the National Labor Relations Board.

So, why would student athletes feel that they need to join a union? Is this about making money? Do players just -- do they have a cause here to do this?

HOSTIN: I'm fascinated by this, especially -- you know I went to Notre dame, so I know about organized sports, up front.

And this has been a problem for a long time. When you talk about Division I schools, football, basketball, they're multi-billion-dollar industries.

And what most people don't realize is that while an athlete may get a scholarship, it's not even a four-year academic scholarship. It's a one-year renewable scholarship.

What if that athlete gets kicked off the team? He doesn't get to finish his college degree. What about if that athlete gets hurt and injured?

LEMON: Sounds like you're in favor of this.

HOSTIN: I really am. I think that whenever you have collective action and a collective voice, to sort of solidify your rights, I think that that's a good thing.

I think it's very brave of these young players to get together and do this.

Of course, the opposite side of this argument is the NCAA is saying, listen, they're getting a free education, which, by the way, is not necessarily true, but they're also saying they're not employees of the university.

But these universities are making billions of dollars on the backs of these players. Shouldn't they collectively figure out what their rights are, and then perhaps get paid a little bit for all the work that they're doing?

I think it's going to be interesting to follow up on it, and I'm very, very interested, especially in the injuries that they receive.

I mean, half of -- I think a majority of them don't even go on to play for the NFL, yet they've made their schools billions.

LEMON: Everybody's going to be watching this, especially other schools.

HOSTIN: I know.

LEMON: You better believe it. Thank you, Sunny Hostin.

HOSTIN: Thank you.

LEMON: Sunny's here.

HOSTIN: I didn't know you could sing like that. I've very impressed.

LEMON: I can't. I can't. It's just few little things, you know.

HOSTIN: It's quite impressive.

LEMON: I was in the (inaudible) choir when I was a kid.

HOSTIN: Let's karaoke together one day.

LEMON: Next, CNN is giving you a unique way to watch President Obama's speech tonight.

Forget live tweeting. We have live reaction from the right and from the left, in real time.

We're going to tell you how to see that next.

Plus, it is Super Bowl Media Day. So just how much attention did this guy get, right?

We're going to tell you if Richard Sherman stole the spotlight, and about some crazy -- and about some of the crazy stunts that reporters pull to get the players to answer some off-the-wall questions.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: As the president gets ready for tonight's State of the Union address, we are getting early signals he's going to highlight his plans to fight income inequality and his right to act with or without the permission of Congress to put his policies in place.

The president has just signed an executive order to raise the minimum wage for new government contractors to $10.10 per hour.

And our coverage of the State of the Union will start at 7:00 p.m. Eastern, and we'll be trying something new at CNN.com, real-time running commentary, first time ever.

Might go something like this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Closer and closer to the most humiliating moment of his life.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What if she says no?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She will.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hello?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, hello.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: That's sort of like Mystery Science Theater, but that's Beavis and Butthead, isn't it?

RACHEL NICHOLS, CNN HOST, "UNGUARDED": That's Mystery Science Theater 3000, come on.

LEMON: I got it. I got it. I got it.

NICHOLS: Didn't you watch television as a child?

LEMON: When I was a child, the black and white thing was probably also -- CNN's Peter Hamby, there he is, on the left. And he has a whole host of things -- people with him.

Peter, tell us about your guests, and what you're going to be doing.

PETER HAMBY, POLITICAL REPORTER: Yeah, sure, Don.

I guess I'm that weird-looking thing on the right, according to the seating layout.

We are trying something different tonight. Look, usually, there's plenty of options for viewers to watch the State of the Union unfiltered.

Tonight, on CNN.com, the three of us here are going to be delivering live running commentary about the speech. Hopefully, it will be a little more irreverent, but still informed. I'm here with two of the sharpest guys that I know in Washington, Tommy Vietor, former Obama White House spokesman, and Tim Miller, former spokesman for the RNC, now both working in politics.

Guys, what are you looking for tonight?

TOMMY VIETOR, FORMER OBAMA WHITE HOUSE SPOKESMAN: This is actually my first State of the Union not working for President Obama, so what I think I'm looking for is not necessarily a policy proposal or someone screaming at him, but an inspiring moment that will be memorable, that will make this State of the Union one we talk about in five years and not one that we forget.

TIM MILLER, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: The problem is we forget about all of them, and so I'm going to be looking at the minutia tonight, the fun stuff for us to gossip about in D.C.

Because if you look at the presidents' State of the Unions past, all you see is a straight line. It doesn't affect his approval rating at all, one way or the other, so we're going to have some fun with that.

HAMBY: And, Don, all of us are on Twitter pretty frequently. We'll be reading lots of tweets and texts from around the country and from our friends here in Washington who work in politics.

The goal here, again, just to kind of give viewers a feel of what it's like to watch one of these things with people who are really in the trenches of politics, covering this and working inside campaigns and inside the administration on Capitol Hill.

LEMON: Twitter. What is that? I've never been on that.

You guys are saying this is the first time I've been -- I've watched the State of the Union. I haven't been in the Obama White House.

You look like you're in college. I'm sitting here with Rachel Nichols, who's coming -- but you guys look like you're kids, like you're 20- somethings, and so, I --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How old are you, Don? Come on.

LEMON: You don't want to know. I could probably be your father.

But here's the thing. I want to ask you this.

Tonight, one of the "Duck Dynasty" stars Willie Robertson is going to attend the State of the Union as a guest of representative Vance McAllister, right, campaign for McAllister, the newly elected congressman from Louisiana, last fall.

This is kind of like -- I don't know. Is this kind of like the Grammys of Washington when you're watching the State of the Union tonight? Are you guys going to treat it that way?

I know it's going to be some serious stuff, but you're going to be unscripted and talking about the names who are there. VIETOR: Yeah. I look forward to making fun of people who make decisions, like bringing a "Duck Dynasty" star to the State of the Union. That is like the "absurdification" of Washington politics and --

MILLER: Come on, I like having a "Duck Dynasty" guy. At this point, you know, this isn't a king, right? It's a president. We can bring real people into the State of the Union.

There will be a lot of ridiculous pairs tonight, some faux bipartisanship, so we'll have some fun thoughts on that.

LEMON: So are you taking questions, Peter? Are you going to be taking questions from social media? What's the thing?

It's just completely unscripted, so I'm not sure that I get what's going to be happening here.

HAMBY: Yeah, neither are we.

LEMON: And maybe you don't either.

HAMBY: It is completely unscripted. We're trying this for the first time, but, yeah, we're going to be looking at Twitter. Just people will be able to tweet at us at #CNN, so, too, we'll provide our Twitter handles later this evening.

So, yeah, we'll be taking lots of questions, and hopefully reading some of the funniest tweets that we see.

MILLER: And the speech is going to get boring in the middle, so if you're looking for some commentary on what's going on instead of flipping it over to hoops, this will be a good option.

LEMON: Who's going to be the first person -- I always like to watch the people sitting behind. Watch the vice president. One year he had the black eye, or something with his eye, right?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The blinking.

LEMON: And then Nancy Pelosi's faces, right?

I'm serious. Am I -- Rachel Nichols is looking at me like I'm nuts, but people -- that's what people are looking about. That was trending on Twitter for the last couple of times the president gave a State of the Union.

Am I wrong about that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're right. Maybe Boehner cries. We don't know.

MILLER: There's the one where it was Dick Cheney, I think, blinked 300 times. Nancy Pelosi blinked three times during the speech. So we'll keep an eye out for that.

LEMON: All right, guys, look forward to it. Peter Hamby, Tommy Vietor, and Tim Miller, thanks. I'll be watching. I'm going to tweet at you.

Make sure you watch the trio tonight during the State of the Union speech and just go to our home page at CNN.com.

It is Super Bowl Media Day. The players talked to reporters. It sounds normal, right, Rachel Nichols?

This is anything but. Next some of the crazy that surrounds this Super Bowl event.

Plus, brace yourself, a popular '80s hair band announces it's breaking up, but they have a special present for their fans before they do.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Gather reporters from all over the world, mix in players from both Super Bowl teams and you have the annual pregame spectacle known as Super Bowl Media Day.

So you heard her snarky laughs and giggles the entire last segment.

NICHOLS: Me? Never. That would never happen.

LEMON: Rachel Nichols.

NICHOLS: I would never make fun of Don Lemon on national television.

LEMON: You were there. What was it like?

NICHOLS: The atmosphere was fun. It wasn't as crazy as it is in past years.

LEMON: Really? With Richard Sherman?

NICHOLS: In past years we've had payers proposed to. There's been crazy stuff. That didn't happen this year.

One of the most popular players was actually a Broncos' defensive player. He's 330 pounds, which is a whole lot of person, and his nickname is Pot Roast.

First of all, on Sunday you may hear Pot Roast and that's who it is. He was explaining on Media Day how he got his nickname, which was when he was a rookie, they were offering dinner and they offered the choices. He picked Pot Roast.

What he said today to the crowd was, Thank God I didn't pick the other entre, otherwise they would be saying that my name is Shrimp Alfredo.

LEMON: And lots of cheerleaders. What the heck is that?

NICHOLS: These are some of the more colorful characters. Number 12, the Seattle fans were out in force.

LEMON: What about Richard Sherman? What kind of attention did he get? Did he say, I'm the best; you're mediocre? NICHOLS: He didn't because he was not here. It was great to see Richard Sherman. He was great, eloquent, funny, very perceptive about the media situation there.

He was really all of the things that he was on our air last week when he was explaining what was behind his outburst and what was so interesting was that reporters kept trying to get him into one of those moments and he said, I know what I'm doing here. I'm no one's puppet.

LEMON: Boom.

NICHOLS: Which is what I think is great about Richard Sherman. He was very aware of the circumstances.

LEMON: When he comes out on the other side, though, he'll be able to laugh at it. Maybe host "Saturday Night Live" or --

NICHOLS: He was very much in his element. He was having fun.

LEMON: Nice work on Friday night with Richard Sherman.

NICHOLS: Thank you. "Unguarded" on Friday and Saturday nights.

LEMON: You were amazing. The interview was amazing.

She just read the promo. Why did you do that? 10:30 p.m. On Fridays. "Unguarded" with Rachel Nichols.

NICHOLS: Join us some time. We'd love it.

LEMON: Are we done? Yes. We're done. Bye, Rachel. See you on Friday.

If you've ever played "Dr. Feelgood" on air guitar, listen up, I'm going to say it once. It's true. Motley Crue is calling it quits.

So the Crue has been singing about strip clubs, smoking in the boys room and shouting at the devil for more than 30 years, selling 130 million albums along the way, but now they are breaking up right after a final tour. Can you believe it?

Alice Cooper is the opening act and some of the tickets will be as cheap as $15 to $20 -- $15 to $20, all right.

What were you saying in my ear, producers? What were you saying live right now? OK.

Up next, Apple sold a record number of iPhones last quarter. Sounds like a good thing, right?

But investors didn't agree. The stock tanked.

So why did that happen? We're going to explain that, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NICHOLS: Wall Street doesn't think Apple is selling enough iPhones despite record sales in the last quarter.

Right now Apple stock is down more than eight percent. Investors were disappointed by last earnings -- last night's earnings' report. They started dumping Apple shares.

Christine Romans takes us behind the numbers.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Don, imagine you just sold 51 million of your world-changing product, even more than ever before, a record number of sales.

It's a phenomenal performance for any company, unless you're Apple. We're talking about 59 million iPhones. It wasn't enough for investors.

It's a huge number but Apple's slice of the smartphone pie is getting smaller. For the first time ever, global smartphone shipments topped 1 billion last year, but Android is gobbling up more shares by the month.

Sales for Apple actually fell one percent, year over year, in North America. In China, sales soared 29 percent, an important market for Apple, and that was before Apple's new deal with ChinaMobile.

But Chinese consumers want bigger screens and cheaper devices. So will the iPhone win them over? A big question going forward.

Apple's last game-changer was the iPad in 2010. Investors are now hungry for something new from Apple CEO Tim Cook.

He has promised new products are coming by the end of this year. Might that be wearables? Or the long-anticipated full Apple TV? Maybe mobile payments? We just don't know.

Don?

LEMON: We'll see, Christine. Thank you very much.

Before we go, we want to remember the late Pete Seeger. Folks tend to remember Seeger as the plucky old dude with the banjo who crooned the old folk songs.

Gentle though he was, the story goes that Seeger practically came unhinged when his friend Bob Dylan dove into rock and roll. Supposedly Seeger threatened to take an ax and cut Dylan's speaker cables. That was way back when. That was in 1965.

Pete Seeger died last night. I want you to listen to Pete Seeger, the great folk musician and social activist.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE SEEGER, FOLK MUSICIAN: If I had a hammer, I'd hammer in the morning, I'd hammer in the evening, all over this land.

(END VIDEO CLIP) Musician and activist Pete Seeger, his grandson says he died of natural causes last night in New York. Pete Seeger was 94.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEEGER: Now, even if you've never heard the song before, you can sing it with me. You just repeat after me. Try it.

Oh, you've got to walk, you've got the walk, that lonesome valley. You've got to walk the walk -

(Inaudible)

May you always be courageous stand upright and be strong and may you stay -

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Ninety-four-years old.

And 50 years ago the Beatles arrived in the States for their first American tour. See it all unfold as it happened with rare footage and interviews from the bands that led the British invasion.

"THE BRITISH INVASION" premieres Thursday night at 9:00 Eastern, right here on CNN.

That's it for me. Thanks for watching.

"THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts right now.