Columns & Departments
Bit Parts
Essence of the Ninth Circuit's Decision in the “Blurred Lines” Copyright Infringement Case<br>Trademark Cancellation Claim Can't Proceed Against Marilyn Monroe Brand Manager
Columns & Departments
Case Notes
Suit in Second Jurisdiction Is Duplicative<br>Mailing Rent Check While Doing Unauthorized Acts Is Not Mail Fraud
Features

Court of Appeals Reaffirms that Deference Is Alive and Well When It Comes to Substantive Requirements of SEQRA EISs
The New York Court of Appeals has long established that an agency's assessment of environmental impacts pursuant to the New York State Environmental Quality Review Act, or SEQRA, is entitled to substantial deference, admonishing lower courts that it is not their role to substitute their judgment for the judgment of agencies undertaking the action. Sometimes, however, lower courts give lip service to the deferential standard of review but fail to apply it.
Features

New Federal Tax Act Gives New Life, and Twists, to Treatment of Film, TV and Stage Productions
Section 181 of the IRC has provided benefits to both producers of movies and television programs and — under pass-through legal structures such as limited liability companies — to their investors. Now, with the enactment of the sweeping new federal tax law, §181 has been given new life, with a couple of additional benefits and a couple of additional twists.
Features

Decision of Note: TV Reality Show Release Overrides Objection Clause
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York upheld a release clause signed by an entertainment attorney who appeared in WE network's reality TV show Money. Power. Respect.
Features

Supreme Court Asked, Again, to Weigh In on Data Breach Standing as Circuit Split Widens
CareFirst, a large health care company involved in a data breach case, asked the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on whether victims can establish Article III standing to sue for the risk of future identity theft. The Court denied the request, leaving intact a recent district court holding that consumers could successfully plead such a claim issue — and leaving a split among the federal appellate courts.
Features

Compliance Officers: Law Enforcement Partners or Targets?
<b><i>Part One of a Two-Part Article</b></i><p>Part One of this article examines key actions brought by U.S. regulators against compliance officers in 2017 based on their failures to ensure that their firms maintain effective compliance and AML programs.
Features

How Ticket Software Lost Trade Secret Protection
According to a recent case from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York involving live-event ticket sales, a purported holder of a trade secret cannot omit a confidentiality provision from its terms of use and then claim trade secret status afterward.
Features

Smart Contracts and Blockchain
As the entertainment industry continues to assess digital blockchain-distribution technology for tracking transactions, it's essential to consider the legal implications for smart-contracting and contract management.
Features

Gone, But Not Forgotten: Evidence from the Archived Internet
As useful as evidence from the archived Internet can be in many white collar trials, admitting it into evidence is not always a straightforward proposition, as a number of recent cases show.
Need Help?
- Prefer an IP authenticated environment? Request a transition or call 800-756-8993.
- Need other assistance? email Customer Service or call 1-877-256-2472.
MOST POPULAR STORIES
- Judge Rules Shaquille O'Neal Will Face Securities Lawsuit for Promotion, Sale of NFTsA federal district court in Miami, FL, has ruled that former National Basketball Association star Shaquille O'Neal will have to face a lawsuit over his promotion of unregistered securities in the form of cryptocurrency tokens and that he was a "seller" of these unregistered securities.Read More ›
- Bankruptcy Sales: Finding a Diamond In the RoughThere is no efficient market for the sale of bankruptcy assets. Inefficient markets yield a transactional drag, potentially dampening the ability of debtors and trustees to maximize value for creditors. This article identifies ways in which investors may more easily discover bankruptcy asset sales.Read More ›
- Compliance Officers and Law Enforcement: Friends or Foes?<b><i>Part Two of a Two-Part Article</b></i><p>As we saw in Part One, regulators have recently shown a tendency to focus on compliance officers who they deem to have failed to ensure that the compliance and anti-money laundering (AML) programs that they oversee adequately prevented corporate wrongdoing, and there are several indications that regulators will continue to target compliance officers in 2018 in actions focused on Bank Secrecy Act/AML compliance.Read More ›
- Removing Restrictive Covenants In New YorkIn Rockwell v. Despart, the New York Supreme Court, Third Department, recently revisited a recurring question: When may a landowner seek judicial removal of a covenant restricting use of her land?Read More ›
- Artist Challenges Copyright Office Refusal to Register Award-Winning AI-Assisted WorkCopyright law has long struggled to keep pace with advances in technology, and the debate around the copyrightability of AI-assisted works is no exception. At issue is the human authorship requirement: the principle that a work must have a human author to be eligible for copyright protection. While the Copyright Office has previously cited this "bedrock requirement of copyright" to reject registrations, recent decisions have focused on the role of human authorship in the context of AI.Read More ›