Business Crimes Hotline
Recent rulings of interest to you and your practice.
The UK's Impending Power Play and Why It Matters to You
Over the past several years, the United Kingdom has been flexing its muscles in the global anti-corruption arena with the imposition of large penalties against companies involved in foreign-bribery offenses, focusing on individual accountability for corporate officials, close coordination with U.S. prosecutors in parallel investigations, and enforcement tools such as self-disclosures, settlements and negotiated plea agreements.
Features
Child Pornography on Workplace Computers
What are the implications of having child pornography on the premises? In businesses, child pornography generally is discovered by IT personnel. Or, if a corporation undergoes an unrelated internal investigation in which all computers, hard drives, e-mail servers, etc. are frozen and searched for responsive material, such a search can to lead to the discovery of child pornography stored on the corporation's server or on an individual's hard drive. What can/must/should be done as a result?
Features
The Courts: Active Players in White-Collar Cases
In June, the Supreme Court unanimously held that Enron's former CEO Jeffrey Skilling did not commit "honest services" fraud, ruling that the statute under which he was convicted must be limited to bribery and kickback schemes to avoid constitutional concerns over vagueness. The decision should curtail prosecution of a variety of conduct that the government would otherwise seek to criminalize through the statute. In contrast, the courts are expanding the reach of other criminal statutes to encompass conduct previously regarded as outside their scope.
Upcoming Events
Harvard Law School Fall 2010 Entertainment Symposium<br>Nashville Bar Association Annual Entertainment Law in Review
Features
Bit Parts
Evidentiary Restrictions on Proving Copyright Substantial Similarity<br>Profits Accounting for Use of Band Name Is Nondischargeable Debt<br>Third Amended Complaint Allowed in Karaoke Case
<B><i>Practice Notes:</b></i> DMX General Counsel
When Christopher S. Harrison first joined DMX Inc. in 2005 as vice president of business affairs, he says the new-employee paperwork required by the company was a good omen. He says he signed a waiver that he would not complain about offensive lyrics in the music playing in the office. "I knew I had made the right decision," says Harrison, now general counsel of DMX, an Austin, TX-based music provider to retailers, restaurants, hotels and other businesses. "We have music, different kinds of music, playing in pretty much everybody's office all the time," says Harrison, a fan of hip-hop and classic rock.
Cameo Clips
CONCERT PROMOTION/TICKET SALES DISPUTE<br>COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT/INDEPENDENT CREATION
Publicity Claim Over Video Game Could Be Replead
Former Rutgers University star quarterback Ryan Hart got another shot at suing video game company Electronic Arts Inc., which allegedly earned billions by exploiting his persona and that of other college football stars. A federal judge in the District of New Jersey recently dismissed Hart's case but gave him 20 days to file an amended complaint to beef up one of his claims: that Electronic Art, based in Redwood City, CA, infringed on his right of publicity.
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MOST POPULAR STORIES
- The DOJ's Corporate Enforcement Policy: One Year LaterThe DOJ's Criminal Division issued three declinations since the issuance of the revised CEP a year ago. Review of these cases gives insight into DOJ's implementation of the new policy in practice.Read More ›
- The Business of Legal Spend: How Finance Professionals Can Drive Smarter Outside Counsel ManagementLegal spend has become a core business issue that now shapes financial planning, operational decision making and risk management. What once lived primarily in the legal department has become a shared responsibility across client legal, finance, and operations teams and their outside counsel.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's New Parameters for Evaluating Corporate Compliance ProgramsThe parameters set forth in the DOJ's memorandum have implications not only for the government's evaluation of compliance programs in the context of criminal charging decisions, but also for how defense counsel structure their conference-room advocacy seeking declinations or lesser sanctions in both criminal and civil investigations.Read More ›
- When Efficiency Meets the Duty to Verify: Reflections on The Verification-Value ParadoxThe Verification-Value Paradox states that increases in efficiency from AI use “will be met by a correspondingly greater imperative to manually verify” the outputs. The result is that the net value of AI in many legal contexts may be negligible once verification is honestly accounted for. For low-stakes tasks, verification costs are light. For core legal work, verification costs are heavy. That’s the tension.Read More ›
