LJN Newsletters

Due process in the Information Age means leveling a dynamic playing field. As courtrooms are being wired for computer access, jurors and litigants are opening the courthouse doors just enough to allow the Internet inside. These online excursions are challenging current notions of fair trial and equal justice.

In commerce, as we Americans are more or less reminded on our paper currency, transactions are divided into two domains: Those that are government-controlled, and those that are privately controlled. Depending on the type of transaction that is involved between parties, different constitutional rights are applicable.
That said and established, let's consider that growing alchemy of the ether realm that mixes expression and the maintenance and control of the Internet. In particular, if the Internet is nongovernmental, then it may generate terms-of-use agreements to prohibit political speech. But if the Internet is governmentally controlled, then Internet users have a First Amendment right to use it for public speech.

In the last year ' particularly in the last 6 months ' a growing number of defendants have refused to settle music industry suits, challenging what they allege are groundless lawsuits filed by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

Recent cases in entertainment law.

The Court of Appeals of Georgia, Fourth Division, found that a local rap artist wasn't a public figure for purposes of a defamation suit over comments made about him on a local radio station.

Recently filed cases in entertainment law, straight from the steps of the Los Angeles Superior Court.

Recent developments in entertainment law.

By 2004, mastertones were the hot new thing. They had replaced polyphonic ringtones (multipitched tunes), which had replaced monophonic ringtones. Mastertones were compressed snippets of studio-recorded music. In order to offer them to the public, ringtone content aggregators needed to obtain both publishing clearance and permission from those who held the rights to the recordings. That meant negotiating with record companies.