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Development
Negative Declaration/Time Bar<br>No Estoppel Against Village<br>Denial of Area Variance
Columns & Departments
Landlord & Tenant
Prior Judgment Does Not Bar Breach Claim<br>Accommodation of Disabilities
Features

25 Years After: Campbell v. Acuff-Rose and the State of Copyright Fair-Use Controversies
On March 7, 1994, the U.S. Supreme Court decided for the first time that a parody may be a copyright fair use. In the 25 years that followed, the High Court's unanimous 9-0 ruling in Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Inc., has been cited in more than 500 court decisions. But the Supreme Court's pronouncement left questions and controversies in its wake.
Features

Decision of Note: Race Discrimination Claims Against Charter Cable Can Proceed
The Ninth Circuit decided that a group of African-American-owned television networks can pursue racial discrimination claims against Charter Communications Inc., the nation's third-largest cable provider.
Features

FCA and Statute of Limitations: A Puzzle for the Supreme Court
The FCA is not a model of clarity. In a certiorari petition in United States ex rel. Hunt v. Cochise Consultancy, the U.S. Supreme Court will address an area of uncertainty that has led to a three-way circuit split regarding the FCA's statute of limitations. Depending on the outcome, FCA defendants could end up facing even more claims up to a decade old or, alternatively, have a new limitation on FCA actions upon which to rely.
Features

Second Circuit Affirms 'ReDigi': No 'Resale' of Digital Music Files
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit recently issued a long-awaited ruling in <i>Capitol Records LLC v. ReDigi Inc.</i>, affirming summary judgment in favor of Capitol Records and its record label co-plaintiffs in a case that raised issues of first impression concerning first sale and fair use in the age of digital music distribution.
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'Sophisticated' Losers
Why Commercial Fraud Claims Sometimes Fail, and the Importance of Due Diligence If a court decision called you "sophisticated," it was probably not intended as a compliment, but instead signaled the death knell of your fraud claim.
Features

Eighth Circuit Rejects Ponzi Scheme Presumption to Protect Legitimate Loan Repayments
In <i>Stoebner v. Opportunity Finance, LLC</i>, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit held that “… Ponzi scheme payments to satisfy legitimate antecedent debts to defendant banks could not be avoided” by a bankruptcy trustee “absent transaction-specific proof of actual intent to defraud or the statutory elements of constructive fraud — transfer by an insolvent debtor who did not receive reasonably equivalent value in exchange.”
Features

Counsel Concerns: Lawyers Battle Over Gears of War Client
A Philadelphia lawyer is suing the founder of a fast-growing litigation boutique over a purported fee-sharing settlement, is arguing that the boutique backed out of the settlement so it could fund other cases against video game makers.
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