Features
<b><i>Online Extra</b></i> YouTube to Offer Posters Legal Support to Defend Fair Use of Videos
In a sign that YouTube may be willing to push back against indiscriminate allegations of copyright infringement, the company announced it will offer legal support, including covering court costs, to protect some videos on its site that it believes meet the standard of 'fair use' under copyright law but have been challenged with takedown notices.
Features
<b><i>Online Extra:</b></i> Google Pushes the Bounds of Fair Use ' and Wins
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit's decision in The Authors Guild v. Google ' a case that, the court said, "tests the boundaries of fair use" ' held that a Google database including millions of books was protected by fair use.
Features
<b><i>Online Extra:</b></i> FanDuel and DraftKings Hit with About 40 Class Actions
FanDuel Inc. and DraftKings Inc. are facing about 40 class actions claiming that the online daily fantasy sport sites fraudulently enticed customers into participating in illegal gambling.
Columns & Departments
In the Marketplace
Who's doing what; who's going where
Features
Heightened Cybersecurity Concerns Impact IP Strategies
Recent widely reported cybersecurity breaches have further heightened awareness of the issue, which is of significantly increasing concern both to businesses and government. Government regulators have pressed for greater cybersecurity efforts ' with the FTC's authority in this area being recently upheld by the Third Circuit.
Features
Crazy for Fair Use
The Ninth Circuit has held that fair use is an exception to copyright law and not a defense, in the first federal appeals court ruling on this issue. The decision is the latest in the ongoing battle between plaintiff Stephanie Lenz and defendant Universal Music Corp. and affiliated companies (Universal). Starting in a rural kitchen in Pennsylvania, the case is now a landmark decision in copyright law that protects many home videographers.
Columns & Departments
<b><i>Counsel Concerns</b></i>50 Cent Sues Lawyers Over Headphones Debacle
Rapper 50 Cent is suing his former lawyers for $75 million, accusing them of malpractice and not adequately representing him in business matters, including an intellectual property case involving his line of headphones.
Features
Your Clients Want Alternative Fees
Think you're being responsive to your clients about fees? They think you can do better.
Features
State, Federal Law Differ on Franchisors As Joint Employers
It seems that the definition of employer under state law is becoming more restrictive but the definition under federal statutes has become more flexible. The reason is a federal political agenda to empower the National Labor Relations Act to encourage collective bargaining of employees of franchises.
Features
SEC Potentially Targets CCOs for Cybersecurity Lapses
Two recent speeches by Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) officials likely got the attention of every Chief Compliance Officer (CCO). CCOs would be well advised to carefully review and implement where appropriate the SEC's latest cybersecurity guidance.
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MOST POPULAR STORIES
- Protecting Innovation in the Cyber World from Patent TrollsWith trillions of dollars to keep watch over, the last thing we need is the distraction of costly litigation brought on by patent assertion entities (PAEs or "patent trolls"), companies that don't make any products but instead seek royalties by asserting their patents against those who do make products.Read More ›
- Private Equity Valuation: A Significant DecisionInsiders (and others) in the private equity business are accustomed to seeing a good deal of discussion ' academic and trade ' on the question of the appropriate methods of valuing private equity positions and securities which are otherwise illiquid. An interesting recent decision in the Southern District has been brought to our attention. The case is <i>In Re Allied Capital Corp.</i>, CCH Fed. SEC L. Rep. 92411 (US DC, S.D.N.Y., Apr. 25, 2003). Judge Lynch's decision is well written, the Judge reviewing a motion to dismiss by a business development company, Allied Capital, against a strike suit claiming that Allied's method of valuing its portfolio failed adequately to account for i) conditions at the companies themselves and ii) market conditions. The complaint appears to be, as is often the case, slap dash, content to point out that Allied revalued some of its positions, marking them down for a variety of reasons, and the stock price went down - all this, in the view of plaintiff's counsel, amounting to violations of Rule 10b-5.Read More ›
- Meet the Lawyer Working on Inclusion Rider LanguageAt the Oscars in March, Best Actress winner Frances McDormand made “inclusion rider” go viral. But Kalpana Kotagal, a partner at Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll had already worked for months to write the language for such provisions. Kotagal was developing legal language for contract provisions that Hollywood's elite could use to require studios and other partners to employ diverse workers on set.Read More ›
- Use of Deferred Prosecution Agreements In White Collar InvestigationsThis article discusses the practical and policy reasons for the use of DPAs and NPAs in white-collar criminal investigations, and considers the NDAA's new reporting provision and its relationship with other efforts to enhance transparency in DOJ decision-making.Read More ›
- The DOJ Goes Phishing: The Rise of False Claims Act Cybersecurity LitigationWhile the DOJ Civil Cyber-Fraud Initiative is still in its early stages and cybersecurity regulations are evolving, whistleblower plaintiffs have already begun leveraging the FCA to pursue alleged noncompliance with government cybersecurity requirements.Read More ›